Found at the annual library sale, stained but
solid and readable, a New Directions Paperbook:
The Collected Poems Of Wilfred Owen for
twenty-five cents. Chance may lead you to the light.
The book discovered on a cluttered table
like some long buried, corroded, unexploded
World War I artillery shell French farmers still
turn up by chance — bones long leached away.
Varying brown stains, mostly on the cover and
edge of pages (coffee we assume), made
random illumination fitting for his last-minute
mis-chance death, that particular bullet
not seeking him in particular as the war wound down.
“Nothing personal,” Death said: November, 4, 1918.
Robert M. Chute's first poem for TheNewVerse.News was posted on August 6, 2008. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.