General Jan Zika
issued his orders
from his
death bed
that his skin be taken
& made into a drum
so that
in years to come
It could be
beaten
to stir on men
to war.
A soldier down to his skin.
200 years later
it sounds its grim tattoo
ushering in the brutality
of the 30 Years War.
Dónall Dempsey
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/military-tattoo-2/
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