Blood Rack, Barbed Wire, Politicians’ Funeral Pyre

The Death of a Soldier:

Life contracts and death is expected,

As in a season of autumn.

The soldier falls.

 

He does not become a three-days personage,

Imposing his separation,

Calling for pomp.

 

Death is absolute and without memorial,

As in a season of autumn,

When the wind stops,

 

When the wind stops and, over the heavens,

The clouds go, nevertheless,

In their direction.

Wallace Stevens.