His last remembrance of shipping out suited his current mood. Dark clouds hovering over the harbor. Lady Liberty not even turning to wave goodbye and wish him safe home.
Now, hunkered down in the trench, knee-deep in mud and lice, feet perpetually wet and frozen, he wondered where was the glory of this great war?
“With the generals, miles back from the front, toasty in front of some farm house hearth,” his trench-mate replied. “For them, war will always be a glorious sport.”
That Jack had been dead for hours made little difference since he surely spoke the truth.
Some historical musings for Rachel’s Friday Fictioneers, May 21, 2021
PHOTO PROMPT © Na’ama Yehuda
Lorraine's frilly freudian slip 
May 25, 2021 at 10:37 pm
Lorraine you’ve told so much in just a hundred words. “Corpulent generals, safe behind lines, histories lessons drown in red wine…. poppies for young men, death’s bitter trade, all of those young lives betrayed”
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May 30, 2021 at 8:27 pm
Sting said it well.
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May 25, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Excellent story, sad and true, and also a fitting tribute to all the heroes who have to give up their freedom and often their lives to fight–for reasons.
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May 27, 2021 at 11:30 pm
Thanks. Yes, sad but true. Two of my great-uncles served in WW1; only one returned to Canada. His brother’s body was one of thousands lost in the mud of “no-man’s land.”
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May 24, 2021 at 7:43 am
Dear Lorraine,
We recently visited the WWI museum here in Kansas City. Your story puts the exclamation point on much of what we saw. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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May 27, 2021 at 11:31 pm
Thanks, Rochelle. Two of my great uncles went off to fight in the great war (Canadians so they left from Nova Scotia) and only one brother returned home. It was the ominous clouds over New York harbour in the picture that made me think of something foreboding. A leaving rather than an arriving.
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May 22, 2021 at 1:26 pm
The Great War was a disaster for all concerned, excepting the generals. It was good to read your different take on the prompt
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May 22, 2021 at 2:39 pm
Thanks. I had two great uncles in that “war to end all wars.” They both signed up in 1914; Grover made it home in 1919. Earle died during the Second Battle of Passchendaele (October 31, 1917). The notorious mud of the battle field claimed his body.
So, the ominous clouds hanging over Lady Liberty made me think of them (thought they left via Halifax, Nova Scotia’s harbour).
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May 22, 2021 at 9:59 am
That’s a new twist on the prompt. Making it a vision of departure rather than arrival. It creates a wholly different mood
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May 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm
It was the ominous clouds in an angry sky that made me think of impending doom. The sort of fate that over came one of my two great-uncles who served in World War One. They left (via Halifax, Nova Scotia’s harbour) in 1914. Grover made in home in 1919; Earle’s body was consumed by the mud of Passchendaele in October 1917.
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