Two Lilies

11/01/2021 – Poem a Day



I stood by the road,

Amongst the lilies

White as the driven snow.



Listening to the planes fly over,

I lifted my chin

And shielded my eyes from the sun



Their engines rumbled,

Sending shivers through me,

Frozen to the spot where I stood.



The ground beneath my feet trembled

The dust stirred before me

But still, I could not move.



I felt the trucks rolling by

Before my eyes registered them

And brought them, sharply, into focus.



Before I could move, I saw

The cold, blunt end of a rifle

Pointed at me from the darkness.



Hands grabbed me, leaving impressions

Marks of a war I was not fighting

But that landed at my unmoving feet.



The world blurred before my eyes

As I was uprooted from the spot

Leaving those white lilies far behind.



Brutal metal, cold against my back,

Cracked my skull as the road bounced below

And I saw nothing more than tears.



Foreign voices spoke demonic words

But my screams were silent

Lost to the cavalcade of horrors.



The cloying smell of sweat and gun grease,

Dirt and stale bread, filling the air

As I gasped against the closeness of it all.



The weight of men grown but weak

Bearing down upon my barren chest

Robbing my heart of its innocence.



I do not know how long I lay

Pinned by cold, unfeeling beasts

Their wickedness tearing through my soul



Until I fell into that unforgiving light

Surrounded by the devil’s own

And knew my life belonged not to me.



My existence outside this place

Stripped away from me forever

And replaced by the shackles of inhumanity.



Broken women surrounded me

Their eyes vacant, no tears left,

And hope evaporating into cloudless skies.



Some had been promised work

But the employment to which they agreed

Looked nothing like these tattered sheets.



Some had done this all their lives

Traded like cattle, treated like meat,

Until all that remained was a husk of a woman.



Each day, all day, for months on end

No rest bar fitful, dreamless sleep

For nightmares came when we awoke.



Sometimes officers, but never gentlemen,

Took great pleasure from your pain

Only to rob you of your short youth.



More often, rank and file defiled

Those once beauteous flowers from the road

And shared their conquests far from battlefields.



For these women, there was no comfort here,

Only an existence paid for with all they had,

A gift tarnished by the dragging years.



Now, long after those guns have fallen silent

And scenes of battle long since been erased,

I see their faces in front of me.



No apologies too many years too late

By men who do not believe the words

Will sate my soul or comfort me.



They cannot return that which was stolen

Or revive that which has died inside

For what passes their lips are empty platitudes.



My purity stolen before the gates of hell

Where angels took flight before their time

And noble women fell on dirty swords.



Though you may see me here before you

I do not exist as you do now

With hearts that beat and souls that breath.



Yet those who would torment me then

Lived and loved as I could not

Unincumbered by their selfish wants.



These animals faced no justice here,

Unaware of the damnation that they wrought,

Save the orange lilies I placed at their door.