(A Poems)
Generals, Kings, Admirals, Field Marshals, Politicians,
These were Pershing’s war heroes… camaraderie,
His compassion, his competition…
So foretells his story, should you look at his war
Photographs! Had you examine Perishing Experiences
In World War One!
Thus, he fought the war, with diplomatic visits to his
Divisions … inspections and War Counsels
Fighting on the Western Front, with his men was never
nor Ever his gig, nor anything over enduring, in that manner!
Yet he is the hero among America
Surely not like Alexander the Great, or Achilles,
Who fought breast to breast with his men!
He was rather the new kind of General, those that sat
Far from the war and watch and listened!
You’d never see him with manned tanks ready to fire…
Or American troops on their way to the front on
trains; or,
Sitting with a private, eating hash and beans or
Canned Tomatoes!...
Standing in a Red Cross Line, a rolling kitchen at the
front,
Handing out tobacco!
What did he do? This American Hero!
He issued formal instructions to launch battles
While he sat back and counted the dead
Never once behind a 340 MM Gun,
While it was firing, in action, during WWI…and
I doubt he ever went into an American Trench,
Especially under the winter snow,
Yet this is our American Hero…!
General John J. Pershing…
#3416
(9-4-2012)
