Axis & Allies - damowords

Grand Palace of Justice
Of an empire born & drown’d in crimson
Naught but the zones by conq’rers occupied,
Cigs, soap & shoes fuse with prostitution
High‐browed JUSTICE combing the countryside;
How deft they sought
These pale, arch criminals
Array’d in Hitler’s court… defeated disciples
Stand faced with counting for their crimes,
Long hours drain’d men would appear
As scapegoats for those crazy times
Oer the best part of a year,
But daily with his honour climb’d
One dashing cavalier…
With ever present energy Goering
Still preaching loyally for his darling.
Judgement pluckt from the fearsome shell
Of Allied opinion,
Harken! Doom bell! the Reichmarshall
Swallowʹd secret poison,
His comrades don the sack… noose… trapdoor…
oblivion…
Nuremburg
1947
Edda
With the shadow presence of the obscure
A woman walkʹd thro Roma Centrale
Boarded the train unnoticed & demure ‐
& no‐one knew she was Mussolini;
Dressʹd all in black
With grief of pale widow,
Despʹrately needing back her beloved Ciano.
Among the riders of that train
An old man recognised her
& told the rest, they tut disdain
Torturing the outsider
It truly was a dreary bane
Bequeathʹd by her father ‐
A legacy shared thro this bitter land,
Stainʹd by his blood, shamed by his violent hand.
The train traverses Tuscany,
Beside the fair Arno,
Where galleries are half‐empty,
Pickʹd by the Nazi crow,
But Italy lives on thro works of Michaelangelo.
Florence
1947