What If In Paschendale…
By: Outlaw-2 Extreme
What if; the location had not been such a swampy area?
What if; mutinies and misconduct had not broken out?
What if; that bloody liquid mud had not formed?
What if; those newly developed tanks had not been bogged down?
Would the allies be able to make a clean sweep with minimal losses?
Would there be a need for hasty orders?
Would there be a need for those duckboard tracks?
Would there be a need for most of us to be mobilized to that dreaded battleground?
What if; chemical gas was not used as bio-weapons?
What if; there was no need for this trench warfare?
What if; there was not a need to lose such high rate of casualties?
What if; this battle had not existed in the first place?
Would we be able to live longer without that cloud of death?
Would we still be able to breathe, and move on unharmed?
Would there be such a case of minimizing losses?
Would it be possible doing so, evading West Flanders out of the war?
All I could see is a sea of mud,
Naked trees that resembled death,
De-urbanising of a village,
And thousands of bodies scattered throughout.
All I could no longer see is the road, now pulverized,
Traces of enemy cover, all shelled,
The exact location, where am I?
The warmth from the heart, I can no longer feel it.
The only things I have left recognizable,
My uniform,
My firearms and ammunition,
And my life.
I need to get out of here, how?
I see, another war poem, WWI?
Yeah, based on the first one as well. Seems that all these poem writing about Paschendale seemed to be pushing me to write a short story out of it.
looks more like a series of questions than a poem