My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Flash 55 PLUS! Where the challenge is to write a piece of poetry or prose in precisely 55 WORDS. The PLUS! is an invitation to reflect on the Battle of the Somme.
They staggered across no-man’s land,
Tattered remnants
Returning to mud-filled trenches
After shifting and ducking bullets
Of another failed assault.
Underneath their feet,
Buried six feet deep,
Unlike the fallen,
The arteries of communication
Stopped pulsing
Amidst the rumbling and shaking.
The field telephones were silent
When their hollow mouths pleaded:
And is there news?
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
Image found on eandt.theiet.org
writing in north norfolk 
Heart-rending.
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Thank you for reading, Rosemary.
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Sometimes the return is even harder, those news are not necessary good are they?
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Very powerful. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those literally in the trenches.
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I know. I visited the Imperial War Museum when I was much younger and remember watching footage. I was shocked and sad.
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The war that changed western society forever–the first technological war, the last where the old empires called all the shots for men such as you describe, from birth to death, and here the sense of being suspended between two worlds, between life and death, of never knowing–is vivid and strong.
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And is there news? The answer… never good.
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That question squeezes the heart and leaves the limbs shaking. Since like Marian suggested, news is rarely good.
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The silence must have been even more frightening than the noise of battle. Such a poignant perspective on the carnage of the Somme.. men lying six deep, and more.
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Life in the trenches, well-described.
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There is a saying, “You can’t win them all.” But losing a battle of war must be terribly discouraging. Buddies died. In vain? Good news or news from home always lightens soldiers in the trenches. I am glad you brought this aspect of battle.
..
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Thanks for reading, Jim.
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Like looking for the morning paper in hell.
–coal (Fireblossom)
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I really liked your phrasing of “hollow mouths” it struck me as unique and fitting image for this stark piece. Well done.
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Thank you for your kind comments and for reading.
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