sat by the bodies of his men
his foot soldiers
all piled up in a heap
scraps of flesh waved adieu in the breeze on corpses
as if cast by random fate in a tangle of defeat by some deranged Deity
only his mastiff lingered in loco parentis
loved ones sensed the carnage but were not privy to the sight
they grieved in private half a planet away
better they had seen it all in plain sight
and not to have to process their goodbyes without anointing the memory before them
with some faint trembling hope
the General sat
he gave no speech and pulled away his epaulettes and medals
his person naked now just a man
and returned them to the campfire of memories
in escrow for some braver valiant
Flynnpoetry 
A rare sense of culpability – the poor young Russian soldiers slaughtered through stupid leadership? Could it even be Gettysburgh? Imagery Sad MH
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I’m thinking that hard military men surrounding photos of Putin on Victory Day, many of their colleagues dead now at his hand in Ukraine, must have had a better side or even better angels somewhere as Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural address on the cusp of the Civil War.
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