‘The Fallen 44’

I tried to write some words of praise, amidst this act of war, to hold our people’s heads up, proud of the fallen forty-four. I tried but then I tried in vain to find the right words for the brave and selfless sacrifice of the fallen forty-four. They followed blindly, ordered on— onto and through the door— The door that shut, as coffins do, on the fallen forty-four. The misencounter they misjudged as standard job, no more, ended in eternal rest for the fallen forty-four. These words don’t have the same effect as Tennyson’s “Charge” before, But I write to join the Nation’s mourning of the fallen forty-four.