HEADLONG

Has this elephant already forgotten
previous slaughters
as he rears high,
trumpets his herd to follow,
stampeding the weeping poppies
and staining the silent earth pink
with blood spilled
from those far too young
to know where their own
race might have led.

©Copyright 2002 by Pris Campbell

Pris Campbell: Headlong
Photograph courtesy Gary Jacobson, taken during the Vietnam War