Poem

by Elinor Nauen

When the war came at last
we were too old to fight.
We could only wait behind locked doors
for the enemy to burst in.
We slipped out at dawn to beg.
We ran to the river to see
the soldiers in their masks.
Were they smiling ?
Did they see us ?  Failure
left us vulnerable.  Our successes
left us.  We wanted the past
to beam on our careless beauty.
We had nothing to give
as cannon fodder, numbers, gurneys.
No one wanted what we didn’t have.
We slept & woke as old people do.
We slept until we were young.