Standing in the sun in the scourging heat
In red and black and loaded for hell
Just waiting for the roar to commence
A simple man looking like a king
He doesn’t even know what there is to win
Blue and black and billowing clouds
He’s standing on a country road
With a line of trees on the side
Bright images of yellow and green floating in my mind
That’s the grass and the flowers in the field
I must have been there
It’s an image that doesn’t secede
A tall black hat and a reddish coat
The smell is not clear but must have been mystifying at first
Being in an unknown place
Only the fighting is what he knows
And what’s next is mysterious to me
It never got further than that line of trees
I hope he managed to go back home
Instead of dying on that field alone
Nico Wiersema is a Poetry Atlas user.
His note on this poem:
'I wrote a poem inspired by Waterloo, based on a dream. I visted the battlefield with my father years ago.'
You can buy this poem and others by Nico from Amazon in his collection Stop!.