John F. McCullagh Poems

In Arlington, where valor sleeps,
there is a marble Tomb
...

"Did I hesitate a moment? Did I stop and wonder why?
We were ordered to attack from some blunderer up high.
We were all, I think, afraid. Who wouldn't be right then?
Those Russians were entrenched and had artillery with them.
...

He's nobody's hero,
never wanted to be.
Just one of a million
who were sent overseas.
...

In an upper room they have me shackled.

Handcuffed, abused and under guard.
...

.


One afternoon in Dallas, Texas
...

You came into our office hopping on a wooden leg
You said if not for S.S.I. you’d surely have to beg.
I’ve bad news but there’s good news too
And this should cheer you up:
...

When Liberty lies bleeding
And the politicians laugh
...

I will not let my hand let go your hand.
How little time together here remains:
Dear sister- looking old, frail, and confused-
lost somewhere in Morpheus’ gentle dreams.
...

A comfortable rocking chair, a woven shawl upon his lap,
Lincoln sat in the Presidential box with trouble lurking at his back.
His guard had a terrible thirst-which he quenched at the neighboring bar.
The war was over after all-Who expected an attack?
...

It was by accident I found it, in a box of odds and ends;
A short eight millimeter film my father made back when.
It's Grandpa's house up on the lake. I'd been just three or four.
The flickering images speak to me as from a distant shore.
...