Remembrance II

The silent armour of a night
Withdrew from hunched shoulders
With the morning sun of D-Day
Day of days
Under the glare a strange and smoking land
Burned the near horizon
As the little ships
And little men
Rode in
Almost a month
The slanting sun on Carpiquet
Fell red upon the furtive brows of men
And on the dust of ruins
(But all the redness was not sun
Nor all the ruin town)
Caen smoldered in the valley just below
And over those long reeling hills
Falaise
Another town
Almost a year
The slanting rain on Oldenburg
Fell wet on the hardened cheeks of men
And on the cool glazed surface of a road
(But all the quenching was not rain
Nor all the mirrors stone)
The Generals had gathered in some German place
To signature an end
Across the withered oceans of men's thoughts
Lay home
And the real peace
The penance of a newer faith was done
Almost too late
Found in despair
Within the huddled unities of men
Under the lightning war
Within the clawing unities of men
Counting the guns
A faith of men in men
And in that awe
That touches men to men upon this Earth