Confederate Graves Poem by Dennis Lange

They fought and died and this is left -
The narrow space that's for them cleft,
The ground they won while rest was lost.
And this long rest is what it cost.

The markers mark where men were placed,
Since memories of each erased
As mourners lived remaining years,
Remembering with bitter tears.

Then, like a distant cannon's roar,
Their flowers faded, were no more.
E'en letters on the stones wear 'way
With weather and the passing day.

It was a life men could not bear
To part with, yet, they parted there
With slaves that were the warring cause.
And though there was the slightest pause,
Most men went on to live quite well
Less why men suffered shot and shell,
Less men who suffered shot and shell.