The stars/
showing Sherman’s scars/
before this/
meant nothing to me./
Long live the Republic!/
Long live the Confederacy!/
(But now it does/
because/
I’ve touched history.*)

*[added later]

———–
The back story behind this poem:
Toward the end of the Civil War, General William T. Sherman and his Union army captured the South Carolina State Capital in Columbia, SC on February 17, 1865, leaving city-wide destruction. Shells from Sherman’s cannons, which were of light caliber, damaged the building only slightly, and brass markers were subsequently placed on the west and southwest walls of the building to show where the shots had landed. Ten were fired in all. Six “struck the western front,” with little damage. This photo is of the lowest (and most accessible) brass star marker (and the damage), near the western door.
In late February, 2015, I turned the star and ran my fingers along the damaged wall.