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Anthony Wade |
The Purpose Of History
The past begins
with the grandparents,
for those lives I remember.
Beyond them is history,
of lives passed into the darkness
of time gone, known through the pages
of books darkly, illumined by the philosophies
of others, alive only in the words of strangers
seeking to mould my view to their thinking.
***
Shades of History
The blades dipped and gleamed,
released water hissing, rowlocks creaking,
the mission a failure, Major Robert Anderson,
who believed biblical authority for slavery,
felt compelled by his oath to the Union
to decline the demand for the surrender
of Fort Sumter, and shortly after
the first shots fired that day
echoed across Charleston Bay,
tolling for the many graves to be dug,
to the north another Union officer
saddled his horse and rode
those long miles south to his destiny,
for though Robert E. Lee held slavery
to be a moral evil, his conscience
would not permit him to draw his sword
against his native Virginia.
What was right or wrong then
was seen in clear-cut lines,
black on white,
certainties,
truths
easily concealed by
history’s shifting shades.
***
Misleading Lines
Block-bending lines formed
quickly in September 1939
following the declaration of war,
thousands of loyal British men
eager to sign up for war
against Germany in the name
of their King and Empire.
My Uncle told of a day earlier that year
when he walked long miles across London
with newspaper in his holed shoes,
explaining to the Foreman
how he had heard there was work to be had,
only to be told, "There is but not for
the likes of you, Paddy, so be off with yer."
Block-bending lines formed
quickly, thousands of Irish men eager
to sign up for British military service
but not for King or Empire,
or for democracy or liberty
but, in my Uncle's words,
"For want only of a wage.”
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