Away at the War

A poem for Mother’s Day

Orphan Girl at the Cemetery, oil on panel, 1824, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), Louvre Museum, Paris.

Away at the War

        for my mother
              Beryl June Judge (née Brandmill)

In a dream more distant  
than an eight-year-old’s tomorrow,
she skips past the stone wall—
her dress, flowered like the field
	she has left, fills with wind
as she calls, father, father
	in the empty churchyard . . . 

Her voice returns from the wall
as she walks toward the church
	into its shadow which spreads across
the graves—a great untouchable mountain
that cannot be climbed
	only watched and hidden under
as it grows smaller and smaller
	till it is gone,
        and she is alone once more.