Once was a question
We never asked.
It was a job needed doing.
There was a war on.
We worked at night
to better see the dials
and watch face,tipped
camel hair to our lips
to make a fine point.
Painted luminescent
hands and Roman
numerals on altimeters,
tipped iron gunsights,
color of old moonlight.
For the boys in France
plugged in some ditch
or bunker behind the
Hindenburg Line.
A hundred years their
ghosts have ranged
Flanders Field and
Bellaue Wood on the Marne.
We are the beacon,
the light of home,
and beckon mildly
them to come mingle
with our bones.
Our lips are warm,
the radium girls
still glowing in our graves
The Radium Girls
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- Posts: 2683
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03
Re: The Radium Girls
Those last 2 stanzas are haunting. The entire poem works beautifully. Kudos again...you’re on a remarkable roll...a pleasure to read your wide ranging work
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- Posts: 1619
- Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17
Re: The Radium Girls
Thank you Bob for the kind words
Re: The Radium Girls
Yes, good poem, I can't see anywhere at this moment of reading it to make any suggestions to make it better.
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- Posts: 2683
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03
Re: The Radium Girls
The warm lips is a great touch. The last 2 stanzas are just haunting....they leave an unnerving but lovely afterglow for the reader