March of the Skeletons

marching skeleton martinets
fresh from the farms and tenements
wielding tanks and bayonets...
right, left, right, left
grand, valiant, bloody, bereft,
England, France, England,
acts of "revolution" then "sedition,"
Germany and the Japs
then Russia perhaps...
right, left, right in the cold
to Moscow and back
on the path to Baghdad, Iraq
right, left, right, left
grand, valiant, bloody, bereft...
Mars-ward incense fumes
in the deterrent age of mushrooms
medals hanging from Athenian spinal columns

equipped and brave
and cleanly shaved
neat salutes over vacant sockets,
hoary digits wrapped around black steel,
like ancient Romans in war's trance,
or Napoleon's lines in defense of France
(like painted tin toys in a dark romance,)
heading for explosive embrace
skeletons marching in place