Born to it. This bookish,
Mired in dead
Joshua transfigured on the left flank
And late that night, a Second Sight
So it seemed that Righteousness
plain-faced, thin Quixote
keening on a hill
at tides of mad dog
Alabamians
still and ever surging
lava-men with heads on fire.
he urged his flank to hold and holler
"Stop them here!"
If there was fear, it never breathed-
he was a boulder
moving.
of the Round Top,
swung his men like living chain
with swords for teeth
inside a giant jaw that gnashed the men
of Oates brigade
and masticated
might.
gave Chamberlain the words
to match the deed.
The negro freed, a nation whole-
a hill-a hand in this.
A bloody page beneath his pen
his sword, the nib to write it.
that GOD had soared
at Gettysburg. Later,
(and more long of tooth)
he would in truth
see need of other wars.
