Richard Schnap - Shroud

Above the city’s lights

Hang dull orange clouds




Stained with the shade

Of a century’s rust




They make me remember

The long-gone mills




Whose bodies were razed

But whose spirits endure




I think of soldiers

Caught in the grip




Of a diabolical war

Whose wages were death




And even though their hands

Built the skeleton of a nation




Their souls find no rest

As they haunt the night sky



















Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.