Notes on Saving Private Ryan
Feb. 17th, 2002 01:59 pm... death en masse was never meant to be a spectator sport.
Silence.
The stillness suffocates,
Presses down upon hearts growing old,
Upon once-blithe spirits that now match
Suddenly-gaunt faces
And eyes bleak with knowledge
In the moment before the fire falls -
And still, they went forward.
Chaos.
Bodies fallen across bodies
Beneath boots that do nothing to soften
The sickening crunch of bone
Shattering like driftwood underfoot,
The meaty slide of flesh
Resolutely ignored,
Familiar faces and bodies
Reduced to obstacles to be climbed over
Lest you, too, lie where they fell -
And still, they went forward.
Hell.
Fire around, before, behind,
The inescapable stench of fear and scorching flesh,
The stickiness of blood, staining and drying,
That will not wash away.
Shouts almost indiscernible;
Human voices have lost the power
To pierce the cloak of terror
That is the certainty of death -
And still, they went forward.
What does it take,
What strength, what magic,
To go forward when all around you
Is death,
When every moment is another snatched,
Stolen from the hounds of hell
Whose breath is the rank whiff
Of fire and fear, so warm on your neck?
Causes cease to matter.
When your day comes to fall,
The only victory lies in going forward.
It is inelegant, it is vicious, it is repellent,
Glory of the most heinous kind -
( but glory, nonetheless )
That when the call came,
To go out and stand to die -
They went forward.
Arguing the cause
Is the province of civilians,
Whose duty it must be,
To ensure that those who stand
Do not do so needlessly or in vain.
Weighing the necessity
Is for those who must count lives
As coin, and spend them dear.
Debate, for that is needful,
But -
When you come to argue the right,
To judge what is just and what reprehensible,
No matter on which side of the gulf,
Behind which colours, country, or ideal you stand,
Remember, of the wall of bodies
Who protect you and fall for you -
Remember -
They went forward.
Silence.
The stillness suffocates,
Presses down upon hearts growing old,
Upon once-blithe spirits that now match
Suddenly-gaunt faces
And eyes bleak with knowledge
In the moment before the fire falls -
And still, they went forward.
Chaos.
Bodies fallen across bodies
Beneath boots that do nothing to soften
The sickening crunch of bone
Shattering like driftwood underfoot,
The meaty slide of flesh
Resolutely ignored,
Familiar faces and bodies
Reduced to obstacles to be climbed over
Lest you, too, lie where they fell -
And still, they went forward.
Hell.
Fire around, before, behind,
The inescapable stench of fear and scorching flesh,
The stickiness of blood, staining and drying,
That will not wash away.
Shouts almost indiscernible;
Human voices have lost the power
To pierce the cloak of terror
That is the certainty of death -
And still, they went forward.
What does it take,
What strength, what magic,
To go forward when all around you
Is death,
When every moment is another snatched,
Stolen from the hounds of hell
Whose breath is the rank whiff
Of fire and fear, so warm on your neck?
Causes cease to matter.
When your day comes to fall,
The only victory lies in going forward.
It is inelegant, it is vicious, it is repellent,
Glory of the most heinous kind -
( but glory, nonetheless )
That when the call came,
To go out and stand to die -
They went forward.
Arguing the cause
Is the province of civilians,
Whose duty it must be,
To ensure that those who stand
Do not do so needlessly or in vain.
Weighing the necessity
Is for those who must count lives
As coin, and spend them dear.
Debate, for that is needful,
But -
When you come to argue the right,
To judge what is just and what reprehensible,
No matter on which side of the gulf,
Behind which colours, country, or ideal you stand,
Remember, of the wall of bodies
Who protect you and fall for you -
Remember -
They went forward.