June/July - John Vanderslice

June July, I went home to live with my mom

At night I sat out to watch cicadas on the lawn

June July, confusion Tennessee

Here Sherman’s army leveled troops in 1863

Now those battlefields are marked and paragraphed

And maintained by National Park Service Trust

Oh

At night I walked through those fields

Looking for proof of death, echoes of wounded soldier appeals

Tonight the rain clouds are pressing down

Hovering low, warning me to go back home

I saw lightning flicker in the clouds

One and two thousand, better turn around

Oh

Light was focused down on me

White spike cracked and threw me to the ground

When I awoke the sun was streaming over the fields

Warming the ground soaked with summer rain