Manassas

a foreboding
photograph
startles to memory
our war's beginning..
 this named entanglement
darkened and dampened
 the frivolity
the expected brevity
of our war with ourselves..
a blood soaked becoming 
of machinery and death..

the foreground a
cannon on wheels
replicated in the distance
and we assume
again and again..
these engines of conflict
dominate a distant
'tho insistent background..
the sun's
fiery reflection on
an expectant treeline..
coupled with sky
turbulent and echoing 
the cannon's 
forthright entrance 
with purpose unmasked..

this our battle of
separation for reunion
a Manassas pattern
oft repeated through
all of these
our rebirthing years..
flanking and horses
surprise encircling
a wall of stone..
agony and sorrow
the fever of war..
all to reframe
then to restate
 our collective.. sacred
 I Am... 

(Thanks to Lucy for the photo
and challenge...!)