Marble Harvest

For the rank and file beneath white bleached stones,
Laid in parallel lines above broken bones,
Life’s fruits and dreams dark death denied-
Scything this white harvest from  despairing cries.

From across the sea they came to kneel,
Upon this cloy earth their wounds to heal.
Written in faces washed by tears
Are bleak farewells, lost hopes and fears.

For such sacrifice of unfathomable enormity
They stone-carved here in cold, sterile uniformity.
I wonder at the end of this dark grey day
Can death to stop death ever sweep evil away?