The Armless One

By William Thomas Marshall

see the child without no arm
he has no blankets he ain’t warm
help he cries
I’m cold

and look

there’s one whose life will

never be told

war

that is why

of all

this

scene

the armless one is only four

he gets a bowl of rice

but he needs more

a mortar got his arm

he’s listed

as a casualty of war

his clothes are tattered and

torn

stolen from a dead woman

with a child unborn

the little one is

charmed by a button

on a dead soldiers

chest

he didn’t see the man

on yonder crest

up looks the little one

at the sun

then the report of a gun

the little one sees no more

for he is dead

a small hole in his head

in a tent upon the crest

a sergeant says

captain sir

we GOT the bloody cur

the captain says

damn it man not just one

get some more

the little child without

one arm

is again listed as a

casualty

of war

(Ed. Note; This poem was written by Carson resident William Thomas Marshall while he was incarcerated at Monroe State Penitentiary in 1967. Guards looking for contraband raided his cell and found this poem along with many others. They didn’t care about the others, but they confiscated this poem and threw Marshall in the hole for 31 days for writing it. Marshall re-wrote the poem from memory as soon as he had access to writing materials again.)
more poems by William Marshall