Poem by Russell Streur

NEWS RELEASE
Title:		STRYKER BRIGADE SOLDIER DIES IN SHOOTING
Release Date:		3/23/2004
Release Number:
04-03-19C
Description:

MOSUL, Iraq – A soldier from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), under the operational control of Task Force Olympia, died from a non-combat related shooting here yesterday.The incident is under investigation. The name of the Soldier is withheld pending notification of next of kin.

EXIT STRATEGY/SUICIDE OF AN AMERICAN PFC

Gung ho

Flag and anthem

Through the flames

Army of one

 

Shoot first

Ask questions later

Then the bayonet

                   he said

 

Blood the desert takes the sand will not return

 

No exit from the RPG

No exit from the mortar round

No exit from the roadside bomb

No exit from the helicopter crash

 

No way home to Eagle Pass

No way home to Santa Fe

No way home to Baton Rouge

No way home to Seven Hills

 

Blood the desert takes the sand will not replace

 

No way out of Umm Qasr

No way out of Tall Afar

No way off Haditha Dam

No way out of Balad Ruz

 

No exit from the sniper scope

No exit from the mosque

No exit from the green canal

No exit from the body bag

 

Blood the desert takes the sand will not release

 

And looking down the pistol barrel

Saw St. Barbara

Clothed in swallows and veil

Waiting at the gate across the river with welcoming arms

Kept his eyes on her

And pulled the trigger.

Atlanta GA Nov 13, 2006

BIO

Russell Streur is a born-again dissident residing in Johns Creek, Georgia.  He was hit over the head with a baseball bat swung by an insistent muse from Crete in May of 2004 and has been just fine ever since.  His poetry and photography have been most recently published in Amaranthine Muses, Boyslut, Dead Snakes, Indigo Rising Magazine, The Literary Burlesque, Meat Heads and Muscle Cars, Occupy Poetry Project, Our Day’s Encounter, Project Agent Orange Poetry Blog, The Rainbow Rose, Raven Images and The Sinner’s Almanac.  He operates The Camel Saloon, an on-line speakeasy catering to dromedaries, malcontents and jewels of the world at http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/ where the beer is cold, the whiskey Irish, and the door is always open.

Streur is author of the book The Muse of Many Names.

Military Poem: In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

by John McCrae (1872-1918), from In Flanders Fields
and Other Poems, 1919

“In Flanders Fields” is one of the most notable poems written during World War I, created in the form of a French rondeau. It has been called “the most popular poem” produced during that period.^[1] Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote it on 3 May 1915 (see 1915 in poetry), after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 22 years old, the day before. The poem was first published on 8 December of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried^[2] and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day (see Remembrance poppy). The poem is often part of Remembrance Day solemnities in Allied countries which contributed troops to World War I, particularly in countries of the British Empire that did so.

New Year’s Day, 1863

Compare our New Year’s to that of 1863 and be grateful we are no longer under the curse of slavery.  Peace to all as we enter 2012.

———————————-

Abraham Lincoln’s election led to secession and secession to war. When the Union soldiers entered the South, thousands of African Americans fled from their owners to Union camps. The Union officers did not immediately receive an official order on how to manage this addition to their numbers. Some sought to return the slaves to their owners, but others kept the blacks within their lines and dubbed them “contraband of war.” Many “contrabands” greatly aided the war effort with their labor.

After Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was effective on January 1, 1863, black soldiers were officially allowed to participate in the war. The Library of Congress holds histories and pictures of most of the regiments of the United States Colored Troops as well as manuscript and published accounts by African American soldiers and their white officers, documenting their participation in the successful Union effort. Both blacks and whites were outspoken about questions of race, civil rights, and full equality for the newly-freed population during the Civil War era.

Emancipated blacks were forced to begin their trek to full equality without the aid of “forty acres and a mule,” which many believed had been promised to them. The Library’s collection records the new steps towards freedom on the part of the African American community, especially in the areas of employment, education, and politics. There is also an abundance of books, photographs, diaries, and manuscripts about many aspects of slave life and culture, such as the development of the “Negro Spiritual” and the role played by the United States Colored Troops in the South and the West.