To Only Hold the Line

Men and Boys tumbling, running,

Stumbling across a broken beach,

assundered sand

Below an unfathomed cliff face;

Unwanted heroism holding their spine,

Some invisible brand burned into

a company's brazen race



To hold the line.



Broken, defeated, yet moving

Across the bloody beach, stultified,

emboldened by success,

Americans, Canadians, alive, to the unfathomed;

Unwanted cowardice pulled ahead

from the brine,

The channel at their backs, the hell

of unbroken fire



To only hold the line!



Willed and unreeled by command and direction,

Thousands slaughtered beneath the steel and fire,

At last beneath the cliff face;

The affection of men alive, ready to climb,

ready to kill,

Far from the sea that sired this hell

of an unbroken wheel



To only hold the line!



And here, with broken flesh,

With a now willing courage,

boys becoming men,

They struggle into this mess of rage;

Coddle the weary, salve the wounded,

forgive their sin,

Break through Evil's receding wheel and wage



To only hold the line.

Men and boys tumbling, running,

Stumbling across a broken beach,

assundered sand. . .


Tom Light June 6. 2009