Sonnet 98 – Special Orders 191 by Dennis Lange

Who knew one fallen leaf upon the grass
Could trip, at once, a hundred thousand men? –
One white canary singing with some sass,
Betraying him who wrote it with his pen. 

To trap the Union army was Lee’s plan.
Three generals, a pitchfork with three tines,
And fat would fry in Harpers Ferry’s pan.
There was no flaw but man in Lee’s designs. 

A copy of his orders for each chief
And Stonewall Jackson made one for his kin.
A copy came; an aide would keep that sheaf –
A souvenir he lost for Union men. 

The wrapper of cigars, a paper small,
Fell to the ground; caused many men to fall.

—

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Order_191

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2016.

 

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Civil War Woods – haiku by Dennis Lange

A blue wave
Of Union soldiers
At the gray.

— 

Sides engage;
The fighting rages –
Red carpet.

— 

Then, the graves
Both Union, Rebel
Flower strewn.

—

photo by Phil Edon at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mXPElMW/Bluebell+woods

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2015.

 

 

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Sonnet 76 – Free To Be Me by Dennis Lange

—

I never was a master or a slave,
Though maybe one, or both, is in my blood.
By kinsmen past is not how I behave
If in me now by drop or even flood. 

What’s gone before is but a sketch that’s pale,
While I am busy now with paint in hand
With all the colors of my present tale
To make my life a masterpiece that’s grand. 

If all my colors clash, there’s none to blame –
Not ghosts or genes or skin or governments.
I am the one responsible for fame
Or failure, not the long ago, or once. 

That some take umbrage at a distant flag
Shows chains of slav’ry that their minds still drag.
—

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2015.

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The Ace Of Shovels, The Queen Of Fools by Dennis Lange

It seems that as all fools rise up
…From penthouse or from hovel,
We’ll call a spade a spade no more,
…But call a spade a shovel.

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I just want to slap a hundred million
people or so and say, “Grow up!”

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2015.

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The Two Georges by Dennis Lange

 

…………..The Two Georges

The royal George was England’s tyrant king,
A sea dividing him from his command.
But rebel George reigned there and closed the ring.

Into the Boston Harbor, men did fling
The tainted tea taxed by the threat’ning hand
Of royal George, then England’s tyrant king.

A rag-tag army rose from edict’s sting.
And who would lead that ragged little band
But rebel George who later closed the ring.

Against that mob, the empire would then fling
A regimented force and navy grand
From royal George, then England’s tyrant king.

Upon Cornwallis, fatal trap did spring.
The sea was lost, and to his strip of land
Came rebel George who round him closed the ring.

One squeezed a colony, but could not cling.
One was the father of his fatherland.
The royal George was England’s tyrant king.
But rebel George reigned when he closed the ring.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2015.

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Outwitted by Edwin Markham

……………Outwitted

He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win
We drew a circle that took him in!

 

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