Bronze to Bronze, by Matthew Murrey

Life, by C. Adrian Pillars (USA). 1924.

Bronze to Bronze
      —WWI Memorial, Jacksonville, Florida

Streaked black and green, he stands
a close crow-fly to the hospital where I was cast 
into this weathered world.  Naked, 

young, metal, and muscular—wide 
wings outstretched from his back--
he perches atop a huge globe of bronze 

aswirl with torsos and limbs and pained 
faces.  World of war 
underfoot, he’s gazing up, as if to take   

to the sky where kids claimed they’d heard 
the thwump, thwump of his wings 
at night above stormed and stardarked roofs.

As a kid I loved to look at him: his freakish 
wings and green indifference to all
the years of standing, staring, solitude and rain.

Pity him, forever looking up, poised to fly 
but never leaving—his feet 
welded to a world of grief, bronze to bronze.

Matthew Murrey
​
Matthew Murrey: "My poems have appeared in various journals such as Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, and Rattle.  I received an NEA Fellowship in Poetry a number of years ago, and my first book manuscript is seeking a publisher.  I am a high school librarian in Urbana, Illinois where I live with my partner.  We have two sons who live in the Pacific Northwest. My website is https://matthewmurrey.weebly. com/"