FORD MCLAIN
ANTIETAM
IV. Discipline
I would never want to kiss you anywhere
beyond your gorgeous right cheek,
because if I did kiss you...
let’s say lightly on the mouth...
or behind your left ear...
or vampire-like at your jugular,
I would never stop...
and I would either be slapped
or go out of control.
ANTIETAM
I. Devastation
September 17, 1862/March 29, 2007
Yesterday, I stood on the sacred ground, site of the
bloodiest single-day battle in American history,
23,000 Americans, northern and southern,
missing, maimed, or dead
the hum of flies and burning horse flesh,
months later, hogs rooting for raw southern flesh and sinew,
blue, grey and red strewn across that awful September day.
I stand on this battlefield,
with all this history
And all this tragedy
And strangely,
yet happily,
All I can think of is you.
September 17, 1862 is but one critical date
In American History,
Supposedly a turning point in the Civil War,
Not a decisive victory, and, in many ways,
A missed opportunity;
And I drink out of my First Regiment Irish Brigade coffee cup,
Thinking
-- analytically and euphorically –
only of you.
What dates in our personal and collective history
Will we remember ten, fifteen, twenty years from now?
February 7 and June 29 are easy, because they begin our own histories;
But what about January 30?
What about February 6?
What about March 29?
Will that be our Antietam?
And is there a Gettysburg to follow?