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Peter N. Carroll
The Unknown Soldier
Too late to name, none
alive to tell who’s smiling
in a trench, the dark-browed boy
in a loose uniform,
short goatee, holding a book
whose title the camera can’t see.
Does it matter who
or why he’s smiling, what he read?
He was there,
Spain 1937
in ill-fitting trousers and shirt,
fighting fascists,
anonymous, immortal.
Peter Neil Carroll is currently Poetry Moderator of Portside.org. His sixth collection of poetry, Something is Bound to Break (Main Street Rag), was published in 2019. Earlier titles include, An Elegy for Lovers; The Truth Lies on Earth; and A Child Turns Back to Wave which won the Prize Americana.
Peter Carroll
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