May 1940

By Erin Solaro

dead behind us on the road to Landrecies
an anonymous French lieutenant-colonel
willing to refight Verdun lies
in the dust and his blood 

his eyes blazed with hate and fury I
wanted to take this thorough fanatic with us
forestall senseless French sacrifice
three times he refused to surrender

I understood him

grass green lilacs fragrant
blue sky perfect for the Luftwaffe
some of our fast-marching 
infantry will die of heat stroke 

a beautiful dream made real
we breached the Maginot line
where meters were once measured
in bodies of men young with me

the opponent collapsed here in France
where now the British and French
high commands seem asleep
riding nightmares of total defeat

pursue to the last breath of man and beast
lest they soon stand in battle again 
freshly organized fully effective
less German French British blood shed

float reins use whip and spur
take time away from the opponent
no time to think and organize
no time to form and hold a front

after midnight stars gleam white
uniforms salt-stained stinking 
Panzers cauldrons for living men
refueled repaired remunitioned 

moonlight harsh on turrets and tracks
propellant petrol thick in our nostrils
ears ringing gunnery radios steel
we outpace artillery infantry

treat the wounded
bury the dead
repatriate the living
finish it

21 June 2023

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Erin Solaro is a writer-in-residence at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, works-in-progress are a novel and historiographic essay about Erwin Rommel, based on new research. Commissioned into the US Army Individual Ready Reserve in 1988. My late husband, Philip Gold, Major, USMCR, Honorary Retired Reserve, died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, likely acquired in Vietnam or Camp LeJeune. My previous book is Women in the Line of Fire (Seal Press, 2006).