<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Four Score Later, We Return</span><div><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve; font-size: 22px;"><br></span><i style="font-size: 11px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 15px;">For my Uncle in-law</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 15px;">Keith Schooler Hickey, Pvt. 15th Infantry Regiment, of the 3rd Infantry Division</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 15px;">20 July 1923, Montana to 23 October 1944, somewhere near Mortagne, France</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"></i><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Keith,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the boys beside him,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">crossed seas, heat, mountains,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the long hideous argument of war.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">North Africa first,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Italy after,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">France at last,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in the Vosges,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">where the trees close in,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the earth itself</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">seems to hold its breath.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">He did not live to see</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the field go quiet.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">He did not come home</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to tell of it.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Only his name remains,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and his rank,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the long line of the dead</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">who bore the weight</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">until the world could breathe again.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Now,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">four score and four years on,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the wheel turns again.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The old disease</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">rises with new flags,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">new voices,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">old appetites.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">From the Witch trials</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to the three-fifths human,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to the war that broke a nation,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to a war that broke a world,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and now threatens again.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">We are once more in the hour</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">when each careless word</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">has weight,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">when silence can be a door opened,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">when the hands of ordinary people</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">must decide</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">whether to stand and engage,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">or step aside in shame.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">So I think of Keith,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">not as stone,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">not as record only,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">but as a life</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">given into history,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">into mud,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">into flame,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">so that fascism might be stopped,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for a time.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">And I think:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">time is not mercy.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">It only returns us</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to what we have not finished.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">So let this be a lament,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and a vow,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for those who died then,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for those who live now,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">for the never-finished work</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">of refusing the lie, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">refusing the dark.</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">- Dirk Dunning</span></div></div></div></body></html>