Bloody Shiloh

He lay his young head
Upon a dead man’s breast
And sighed his last
Into eternal rest.

Monotonous long roll
Bloody April, bloody day
Screaming men and bugles
Never quite go away.

The blood and fire
The blaze of battle
Filled the air
With the saber’s rattle.

Dead horse and rider
Dead officer as well
Dead cannoneer and soldier
All fodder for hell.

The very earth yawned
To swallow the blood
That came as red deluge
That swelled as a flood.

Peach blossoms rained
Felled by the ball
Littering the orchard
Like a strange, early fall.

A pond, stained with blood
Was an oasis for those
Who crawled for a drink
Wearing blue or gray clothes.

Here remain death
And the horror of war
The slaughter of brothers
And what came before.

I stand now where he died
Some young, anonymous man
Here his blood spilled
There it gushed, pooled and ran.

Oh, Shiloh! Bloody Shiloh
You are a mad, wicked whore.
Though dressed as a maiden
You are the cruel dog of war.