Web.(For Onelia) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

On the cruel
twist of barbed wire

in the middle
of No-man’s Land

uncaring of
the carnage

on either side

not listening to
the human

dying...crying for water
crying...for his mother

(as if he were
a little boy again)

a human hand
minus its human

caught...snagged
on the barbed wire

like a piece
of thrown away leather

unreal
in its realness

flesh rotting
around a perfect fingernail.

The web
shaken by the faraway explosion

grows more
& more

beautiful

making even
the barbwire

a thing of
wonder

that glows

in the soldier’s eye

seeing now

the last thing

...he will ever see.