A gentle breeze billows the green barley
Sending waves shimmering from hedge to hedge
Elder and Herb Robert sparkle the field edge
Above the oak leaves do not stir
Near here a crown once hung on a thorn bush
Men struggled for cause, battle cries rang out
A King died alone fighting amid the foe
Violated in death, lost
Naked and broken the victors took him to town for display
Traitor they called him, an anointed King of England
Hunchback, wicked, perfidious
Name calling by the new regime
Murderer of children they whispered into the stream of history
A gentle breeze billows the green barley
Above the oak leaves do not stir
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
The Cheesesellers Wife 
Masterful!
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A fine blend of history and nature’s sleep.
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This is WONDERFUL! The two lines of the opening repeated at the end is very effective, the peacefulness of a piece of land where once there was pain and bloodshed. A legacy from olden times from which we have not evolved, it seems.
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No, we haven’t sadly.
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Always good to be able to look back at history and to learn from it (hopefully)
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Yes, indeed!
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powerful poem, Kim, that violent and vivid middle stanza bookended by bucolic, peaceful scenes…JIM
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Thank you Jim. The battlefield is now glorious English countryside.
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I wonder what we will learn from the lessons of today. I hope we leave words of wisdom to the generations to come after us.
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