THE PILGRIMAGE

PART III

   Pte. Joseph William Colp 

                 1919-1943

***
Moro River War Cemetery

May 2017

Now it’s our turn.
Your Newfoundland niece Darlene will come.
Bring her husband and daughter. We are
told it’s warm and dry in May. No mud.
She is the war artist. Paints the valor
and misery of the Blue Puttees.
Battle of the Somme.

801 men went over the top knowing…
68 answered rollcall the next day.

One painting bears the distinctive mark
of your letters home. “I Remain,
Your Affectionate Son, Joe”.
Your carefully placed words
reflect none of Italy’s pain.

“I am sure,” she says,
“we will all be humbled.”

***

Moro River War Cemetery

March 1944

Foreign hands dig up my body
from San Pietro roadside. Bring me
here near Blackie and 100 more of my mates.
At Cassino, just north of Castel di Sangro,
20,000 of the Jerries are buried.
At peace. At last. Under Italy’s brilliant blue sky.

I never think of my German blood.
Came from Wiernsheim. 200 years ago.
I am the one who dies.
Odd. Now we know
by the time this bloody war is over
almost 50 German soldiers who
share my name lie dead.

Josef Kolb

Das nie eine Mutter mehr ihren Sohn beweint.ii

***

Moro River War Cemetery

August 2017

It will be blistering hot, they say.
No cool Atlantic breezes.
If it were spring, Uncle Joe,
I would bring you mayflowers.
We come anyways, more nieces,
Annette and I. Great-nephew Adam.
Like you he takes good care of his mother.
Will drive us along the road to San Pietro.
Stop at the foot of Mount Miglio.
Castel di Sangro. Perhaps another day
wander up to the quiet spot where
so many enemy soldiers lie buried.

Did you know Germany still recovers
thousands of its war dead each year?
The Liri River Highway. Death Valley
they called it. “This,” I jokingly tell my son,
“is our World Peace tour.” He lives in Germany.
Expects a test at the end. Says he will fake it.

We turn east to the Adriatic.
His partner, Gabi, is half Italian.
She will keep us from starving.
Head to her ancestral home. Pescara.
Did you know ¾ of that city was
destroyed by Allied bombs?

Praying for sunshine
the next morning we will drive
½ hour south to the gates of Moro River
_ And. Finally. You. Your niece Barbara
has the right words:

“It makes him seem close at last.”

The cut runs deep.
Today we kneel.
Trace the cross.
Blood. Bone. Earth.

***

They paid me $1.50 a day.
My mother depended on me.
She receives $48.66.
Forwarded by regular mail.

Three months later they catalogue
my earthly wealth. File the list
in a dusty Ottawa department shelf.

A small change purse.
My New Testament.
Photos of my family.

The people of Castel di Sangro
still remember us.
Citizen soldiers.

We weren’t in it for the money.

Semper Fidelis.iii

________________

ii. "That never more a mother will mourn her son."
From ' Rising from the Ruins', national anthem f the German Democratic Republic. Often quoted on war memorials.

iii.  Always Faithful.  Motto of the West Nova Scotia Regiment.