In a Normandy field
Under hedges’ shade
The headstones gather,
Shadows edge
Over ageing stone,
Short rows close
Under trellis and rose
Where Briton and Hun
Lie quiet together
Beneath a late sun.
Above the beach of Omaha
Shadows stretch
From cross and star,
Jew and Gentile
Rank and file
Recede in long diagonal
Past lily and pine:
The mown feet
Of American dead
In quiet line.
On the headland tip
Of the Pointe du Hoc
Clay and pebbles slip
Where sightseers stoop
For berry and shell,
In crater and pool,
Where men fell.
The cool inroad
Of time and sea
Rolls the dead into history.
Now white sails tack
Where caisson and jetty lay,
The evening tide,
Over tilting hulk,
Spills bladderwrack.
Sea rise and sea fall
Pile gradual sand
On the Atlantic wall.
From a musty mound
In golden stubble
Juts an ancient gun.
Rust and bramble,
Wire and sea song,
Fuse beneath the setting sun.
Dead and gone
The iron hewer,
The grinning Overlord,
Of Utah and Omaha,
Gold, Juno and Sword.
©Terry Hodgson2020
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