Open Poetry Competition 2010
Poetry Competition Runner-up
and by the kneeling tree
Paul Hennessey (Exeter)
The trees are naked, kneeling arms outstretched
Upon a sky most wretched
All its colour drained it's living gone
I think that we have bandaged up the sun
And I am hiding
Hope my armour and my gun
What promises I make
A glorious life I would have lead
If God would only find me now
And lift me up from these uncounted dead
My final whispers wasted on a prayer
Even exhaustion knows
God does not have a side
Or have a care
When did this silence come?
I see the air torn open over head
And yet my fear of it is gone,
I feel at last the earth is still
Untroubled by the barking of the guns.
And though I know the battle rages still
For me at least
This war has had it's fill.