A glorious standard arose
Rippling softly in the wind
Its stars smiling freedom
My sands ran scarlet
But blood washes away
Cadavers do not retreat so easily
He alone was left, facedown in the sand—
His grainy coffin mattress
He was the only one—
A forgotten child in the celebrating mass
Only one piece of him taken
The dog tag, carried off for trophy
His flesh discarded, cast away to feed the gulls
His mother had no son to mourn
His children left lonesome nights
He rested beside two other befallen,
Carried off by woeful brethren
Who made his earthly eulogy a kick in his side,
A malfeasant tormenting cackle
I buried him in my sand
Shoveling his grave with my rushing tides
I am more human than the damned
Who scowled upon his fallen corpse
Only I felt compassion for him
That fallen German soldier
Left for dead by the Heroes
