They come
    thousands
        (tens of)
            this year
tourists        looking
    for hero soldiers
        in green fields
uniform
    in their uniforms
        (such frayed garments)
            lice and disease
their wet yet burning
    feet
        withdrawn
for one hundred and fifty
    years
        of chipped monuments
            polished
by accumulated weather
    and praise
each soldier a composite
    of extremities
hardtack
dissolved
    in the old soil
minie balls
    in the national park
museum

This morning history
drizzled
    eating into footpaths
    circumventing parking lots
    slipping beneath dead canons
until the clouds retreated
    and sunlight tilted
        into tourists’ eyes
that see the wet
    umbrellas
        and reconstruct
the rain

 Alan Elyshevitz is a poet and short story writer whose collection of stories, The Widows and Orphans Fund, was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. In addition, he has published three poetry chapbooks, most recently Imaginary Planet (Cervena Barva Press). He is a two-time recipient of a fellowship in fiction writing from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Currently he teaches writing at the Community College of Philadelphia.