Yellow thistles man turrets in gusts
above red rust treds webbed in vine
dug deep into steepe meadow mud.
Ridge ferns held in blood memory
cover the horizon
in an arena at attention
watching the infant patrol below
wander ranger file in fermented green,
each step forcing explosions
of insect flight over salvage ground.

Jack,

Like this a lot, very sinewy. Love how the "treds" line plods along in monosyllables,
how the insects at end are larger than the soldiers, "salvage" at end.

"steepe" typo?

Tom

the sounds in the words carry a slogging weight; the sounds alone carry/communicate a tone; and the use of infant within these lines just really hits me with the loss of so much youth to war.

i, too, love the infant.
good strong write.

tiko

Thanks for the responses.

What about hyphenating ranger file? I think it would provide a minute jolt of movement to the image.
And maybe over for in.

Nice. Very nice.

Maggie

Ridge ferns held in blood memory
cover the horizon
in an arena at attention
watching the infant patrol below
wander ranger-file over fermented green,
each step forcing explosions
of insect flight over salvage ground.