MONUMENTS – By Herb Siegel
Generals sit erect while
marble horses
rear high, fallen comrades
lie etched beneath.
Presidents in chiseled
rocks, bodiless
soldiers entombed wrapped
daily in a wreath.
Obelisks’ soar marking
feats of heroism,
granite arches harbor
battles won and lost.
Gravestones hiding dead
from vandalism
iconic landmarks stand in
sun and frost.
Yet end comes to stone and
the names thereon
as mountains wear, glaciers
melt, and trees die
mocking man’s monolith
phenomenon
made to defy mortality gone
awry.
Barbarism cut into
weathered rocks
the refuge of a sword but not
a cynic,
cloaked in swarming
pigeons that come in flocks
these edifices are but
metaphoric.
Wars don’t decide who is
right, only who is left.