Something To Look Forward Too, Part Iii
After moments she shook her head,
then moved over to the brick hearth,
a strew cooked over glowing coals,
she threw more spuds in for her part.
Then came over to the main room,
and sat herself down on a chair
Ooposite where Emmet stretched out,
her piercing glaze did find him there.
She said, “You’ve got a lot of nerve,
coming here to ask for my help.
You Yankees did kill my husband,
up north at Sharpsburg my man fell.”
Emmet said, “I’ve seen many die,
countless friends from my old hometown.
Men with children and wives back home…
all were mercilessly cut down.
“Hell, even before the shooting
the small pox took my wife and son.
These days death seems like my whole life,
can’t remember another one.
“So believe me when I say that
just a night of quiet will suffice.
Let those kids enjoy what they can,
we can be foes come morning light.”
Sophie moved to yell back at him,
but the weight of his words stuck deep,
she saw a man weighed down by loss,
and not some damn scoundrel Yankee.
She frowned and said, “For what it’s worth,
I hoped it would not come to this.
For years I fear this war would come.”
Emmet said, “It is what it is.”
And he proved quite true to his word,
made no moves to put hands on her,
praised her for her poverty stew,
listened patiently to her words.
He heard how April’s parents died,
how Sophie was all she had left,
that she’d no children of her own,
and wouldn’t with her husband’s death.
She learned of his farm in Vermont,
the milk and cheese he used to sell,
how despite years of hard toil
it never had done really well.
And when the morning did arrive,
when Abner came from April’s room,
Emmet looked out, back to the war,
his face took an aspect of gloom.
But he reminded himself that
rhis night had just been a mirage,
rhese things did not exist for him,
only the battle and his squad.
As he and Abner mounted up,
and turned now-fresh horses to leave,
the women came to the front porch,
he almost felt the need to grieve.
To leave this for the battlefield,
sometimes God seemed rather unfair,
Sophie waved and said, “Please, Emmet,
wherever you go, do take care.
“And if you pass this way again,
please do come by to say hello.”
April blushed when she heard these words,
Emmet thanked them both, and did go.
To their surprise, for three months more,
they remained patrolling those parts,
twice more, when on their liberties,
they would ride out to Sophie’s hearth...
CONTINUES IN PART IV.
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