Righteousness (poem)

Righteousness

They won’t go on horseback

The captains have decided even negligible waste

points to a fault of decision-making

You have to draw the line

The small picture should be as clear to your eyes

as the distance between these and the scout’s

salute

throw lives away at least

on footholds

gain by gain

so nothing but a thirty-leagues’ crawl

not food nor water enough to grant returning

Ravense, your face will never be forgotten

If you or any one change clothes with an enemy

to be carried with the wounded inside

Cut your own throat for the sake of

time

gain by gain

and that you cannot speak

I read the news and there is no news

The roaches swarm the larder

No news of flaming pitch from firmament

Or any sign the nibbling jaws are judged

There is no news and I read the news

in hopes the stores of sand-grained mounds

Stirred by feet as dirty as our own

remain

Righteousness

The Mind’s Eye 

Heroic Courage

(2019, Stephanie Foster)