Turtles and Cars, Antlers and War

This poem builds in fragments of Robert Foote's poem, "An Interrpution," which the poet, Will, recently read in his ninth-grade English class. The borrowed lines are marked with quotation marks, and if you read the original poem from which the lines were taken, you will no doubt be intrigued by how he crafted a poem about war inspired by a poem about a turtle crossing the road.

On the Horizon

The sun’s golden reflection pierces my eyes

I squint in time to see a set of antlers leaping across the plains

They fade

“Till it [is] just a rustle in the grass”

But nothing gold can stay…

That’s when the first scream burst out,

So sudden, even the wind stopped to look

The screams of dying men

The constant sounds of explosions

The whizzing of metal stabbing through the air

All the sounds of pure evil

Coming together to form this orchestra of pain

I feel a small burst of fire shoot through my legs

Gravity is my enemy as I crumble to the ground

Ending all sympathy

“I had for man"

All the explosions and screams suddenly go deaf

I look up

Only to see the clouds begin to cry

At the sight

Of men, who don’t know

"To let life go on where and when it can”

And as my eyes begin to creep shut

I am able to see

The beautiful golden antlers dancing on the horizon

by Will L. 

Grade 9

artwork by Kristin R.
Grade 9