Reading Clausewitz

I was reading Clausewitz and Gibbon,

Tacitus and Caesar, Gallia est omnis

divisa in partes tres, and I heard

the legions, the sounds of marching

feet matched to beating hearts,

giving way to the barbarian riot

storming the gates, jihads across

desert sands, crusades and wars

of Christendom giving way

to an American Illiad.

My grandmother,

in reverent memory

of a father-in-law

she never knew

continued to fight

Yankees at every turn,

casting the occasional

suspicious eye at me,

wondering why

I spoke like one.

Photograph: Gettysburg Battlefield by Tim Emerich via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.