The Nightmare Complex

To write a poem I dream an undreamed dream
The woods in France  where float the dead young men
A nightmare complex in its perplexed themes

In our dream the narrative has means
To  make those killed communicate again
To write a poem I dream an undreamed dream

Later, in another war, trains  steamed
To take the insect Jew, no longer man.
A nightmare complex in its evil themes

The little pearls we half see  as we scheme;
The evasions we ignored but which remained.
We read a poem,  we dream an undreamed dream

Who we are and who we might have been
At 4 am  in isolated pain
The Nightmare Complex,  come to share our screams

Can any see the woods as Dante aimed
To recreate the paths where we might change?
To write a poem embodies  soldiers’  dreams
Nightmares dark  with piercing warlike themes