This photo has been waiting in the wings, and today is the perfect day to post it as it’s Walt Whitman’s birthday–he would’ve been 191. Actually, I have plenty photos of this placard because I photograph it every time we pass, but this one just happens to have been taken this spring, just as the lilac bush behind it started to leaf out. It’s on a narrow path that winds through the woods in Mason District Park, which borders the town of Annandale. Thank you to a blogger friend who wrote elsewhere, a while back, that Mr. Whitman’s birthday was soon approaching…if not for the mention, I’d have been none the wiser!
So, this was originally a birthday post, but when I read the placard’s words again, I realized that it’s fitting for Memorial Day, as well. I’ve written the words here…
This solitary lilac bush, marking an abandoned homesite, stands as mute testimony to the heartbreak of a borderland where the War Between the States became a war between fathers and sons, brothers and neighbors. During the four years of bitter fighting, this was a No-Man’s Land; both Union and Confederate troops plundered the fields, leveled the woods, drove off livestock and torched barns. The nearby village of Annandale was burned by retreating Union troops.
Six score Aprils have healed the scars on the land. Still, in the quickening twilight there falls a shadow of sadness; and we yet shall mourn all fallen comrades with every returning spring.
Grace
T
8noodles
justin
YogaforCynics