(Last French soldier killed during World War One, 15 minutes before the Armistice came into effect.)
Yes, Augustin
you were the last to fall – shred & fed
into the machine, the last
eye-bulge throat-gurgle, the last
crimson lung-blood
dribbled from nose to lips
the last limb-jerk death-throe
until the world cried: enough!
And as the greed-grinder jammed
and the lovers, wives and mothers
all wept, did your limp soul hover
over the western front & comingle
above the shell-pocked mud
did you rise with enemy and foe alike
to see yourselves slow-rot on the mud-fields
to compost one red-poppy sunset at a time –
Yes, Augustin
yours was the last death rattle they
spent half Europe’s youth to hear.
