Axis & Allies - damowords

The Pendulum Turns
From the depths of the tractor factory
Lowly corporal makes one last broadcast,
Heard in evʹry homestead of Germany,
“Der Fatherland, der Fuhrer to the last!”
Lost & alone,
“Why are we forsaken”
All animals hath flown, here endure only men.
Ivan came in ev’rywhereness
“Hund wollt ihr ewig leben”
Kingly heroism his dress
Willie urges on his men,
Thro daunting danger & duress
Til they were dead & then
He sat with his wife’s photo one last time,
Last round blew out his brains, walls coat with slime.
Paulus grappl’d with cruel conscience
Cow’ring in the corner,
Christian sense curtails defence,
Consents to surrender,
How glad that captured mass of men meant for Siberia.
Stalingrad
February 2 nd
1943
Death of Jack Sumner
They raisʹd their spirits with an old sing song,
Silenced by this surfacing submarine,
At once old sailors knew something was wrong,
Those long, square‐jawed faces far too serene;
Cold reasoning,
A Fuhrer directive,
“Pity is burdening, let no opponent live.”
Sight of muzzles upon them aimed
Fuel enough for frightenʹd flap,
ʺWe are unarmʹd, ye not ashamed!ʺ
Blonde rating straighten’d his cap,
Took four bullets, bloody & maimʹd
Croak’d, ʺCheerio old chap!ʺ
To this miraculously unhurt Jack,
Led breathless, daring not to answer back...
As Xaver surveyʹd the murder
He caught a faint movement ‐
See a Stemmler slay a Sumner,
Now unambivalent
The goddess KARMA flit the scene & to another went.
The Atlantic Ocean
February 3rd
1943