Reports are various–
conflicting also:
many fell,
a few;
like taken cities. . . .
Whether or not
to any loss there is weight
assignable,
or a music given
–some play of notes,
slow-trumpeted,
for which to listen
is already to be
too late;
whether forgetting is
or is not proof of
mercy, henceforth let
others say.
Is not victory itself
the proof of victory?
Little hammer, chasing–onto
unmarked metal–pattern,
decoration,
a name,
a scar upon the face
of history, what
has no face
Of briar
and thorn, my bed.
–I stand in clover.
-Carl Phillips
