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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
2021 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE FINALIST BY PRISCILLA MELCHIOR
Confederate Memorial Day April 1958
Even the mules seemed tired, every bit as exhausted as the old men who drove the wagons, gray as the uniforms they wore to plod down Nash Street, heads bowed, solemn, righteous. Children followed the parade, romping, teasing, summoned by the marching commands, the clop, clop of feet, utterly unaware of the reason for such a rare display of flags and guns, this march for soldiers in a cause long disgraced. Few even paused to watch as they passed. Only the young would follow across town, giggling, dodging that which mules left behind, half interested until, at last, the procession came to a halt at the graveyard, where faded headstones formed a battalion of memorials to men who took up arms against their country and called to their aging sons and grandsons to resurrect the past, cover it with a veneer of honor and pride and ignore the irony of Taps as it lifted on the April air and drifted over the hill.
PRISCILLA MELCHIOR is originally from Wilson, NC. She is now a four-time finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize, and her poems have previously appeared in NCLR 2017, 2018, and 2020. Throughout her career, she worked at various newspapers in eastern North Carolina, including The Daily Reflector. She retired to Highland County, VA, in 2011.
Winter 2022
