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an ekphrasis: George Wesley Bellows, The Barricade, 1918

The Barricade by George Wesley Bellows, 1918

In August of 1914, during WWI, Germany invaded Belgium. According to witness accounts published by the British government in the Bryce Report* of 1915, German soldiers used townspeople as shields in fighting those resisting the invasion. American realist artist, George Wesley Bellows (featured recently with my poem, harbour seal dream), based a series of paintings on scenes from the report. My poem here responds to the painting, not the historical record.

human shields

What they are told:

Strip your clothes
raise your arms
expose your all
they’ll not shoot
a body bared

Then stretch 
your natal armour
to the heavens 
   your god 
as if in praise 
in thrall

For at the sight 
of your surrender
they’ll not dare 
be the ones who 
let blood fall

But if 
aiming at us 
they do 
bring down
even one 
and your 
bright-lit flesh
is pierced 
remember 
remember the call:

Whose mind is cold
whose the true 
crime of war
whose the glory
the world will know

And who the weak
who good
who the strong
who evil
who the accursed
who the risen 
the world will know 
and see 

While you
and we  
may die
the cause
the victory 
is together ours 
in righteousness 
the trial 
the penance 
endless perdition 
theirs

So with your women 
children too 
just as the day 
they were born
stand before
and unto us 
in praise
in thrall 

In your brave
soft delivery
our fire
our steel 
shadow
protect

And see
the enemy 
vanquished
once and 
for all time

*Viscount James Bryce (1838-1922), historian and former Ambassador to the US, was responsible for producing the "Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages," aka the Bryce Report, an attempt to verify widespread reports of atrocities perpetrated against civilians in occupied Belgium during 1914. As a propaganda tool, the report had a huge impact on public opinion in Allied and neutral countries, particularly in the United States.