Gerald McCarthy

The Hooded Legion

Let us put a monument to the lie.
                 --Joseph Brodsky

There are no words here
to witness why we fought,
who sent us or what we hoped to gain.

There is only the rain
as it streaks the black stone,
these memories of rain
that come back to us-
a hooded legion reflected in a wall.

Tonight we wander weaponless and cold
along this shore of the Potomac
like other soldiers who camped here
looking out over smoldering fires into the night.

What did we dream of
the summer before we went away?
What leaf did not go silver
in the last light?
What hand did not turn us aside?