Shiloh

They walked this field
on a day like today.
Blue and Grey, too young
to comprehend the meaning
of their sacrifice.
Dawn's silence was shattered
by the screams of the fallen,
stung by angry leaden hornets.
Dreams unrealized, extinguished.
Deaf to the din of the cannon,
blind in the smoke of destruction,
they lay on blood hallowed ground,
buried in our national memory.

Shiloh,
I too walk these fields,
now silent, long overgrown
with wild flowers of change.

Shiloh,
I too touch the cannons still hot
in this mid-August sun,
but I cannot feel the fervor
that your biblical name recalls.

Shiloh,
The best I can do
is remember the men
who died in these fields
on a day much like today.