GRAY SHADOWS

While walking through the woods one day
  surrounded by deep summer's green
  I found myself quite far away
  from any place I'd ever seen

I wasn't lost or turned around
  (having compas and a map)
  no need for searchers on the ground
  thus avoiding"lost" mishap

On top a hill to my surprise
  was an abandoned family plot
  miles distant from most folks eyes
  by even kin it was forgot

I paused to take a closer look
  for chimney or abandoned church
  near to this hill above a brook
  amid thick stand of pine and birch

In seeing none I scratched my head
  why put a graveyard here ?
  who chose to put their newly dead
  where nothing else was near

I noted then that huge oak trees
  were growing at each corner
  I knew the planter had to be
  a long forgotten mourner

Squatting down I tried to see
  by study of headstones
  what family's plot that this might be
  whose lonely, buried bones ?

But all the headstones were just rocks
  half buried and unmarked
  interspersed by random hollyhocks
  giving no hint from where they harked

Upon a much,much closer look
  when were they last alive?
  same year of death they all partook
  scratched deep was 1865

Rising then I understood
  all six graves were brothers
  buried here in somber wood
  by grieving rebel Mother

The reason for no sign of home ?
  destroyed by troops in blue
  the reading of this long lost tome
  now easy to construe

For just a moment I thought I heard
  e'en now believe perhaps
  in stillness breeze left undisturbed
  a sad and distant "taps"

I turned to leave chill bumps behind
  and seek a much more sunny spot
  where sunshine's light would leave me blind
  I hurried 'way at a slow trot

Yet still I seem to think about
  these brothers late at night
  and how they died with Rebel shout
  fighting for what they thought was right