Dandelions by Deborah Austin (thank you, anonymous!)

under cover of night and rain
the troops took over.
waking to total war in beleaguered houses
over breakfast we faced the batteries
marshaled by wall and stone, deployed
with a master strategy no one had suspected
and now all
firing

pow

all day, all yesterday
and all today
the barrage continued
deafening sight.
reeling now, eyes ringing from noise, from walking
gingerly over the mined lawns
exploded at every second
rocked back by the starshellfire
concussion of gold on green
brining battle-fatigue

pow by lionface firefur pow by
goldburst shellshock pow by
whoosh splat splinteryellow pow by
pow by pow
tomorrow smoke drifts up
from the wrecked battalions,
all the ammunition, firegold fury, gone.
smoke
drifts
thistle-blown
over the war-zone, only
here and there, in the shade by the
peartree
pow in the crack by the
curbstone pow and back of the
ashcan, lonely
guerrilla snipers, hoarding

their fire shrewdly
never

pow

surrender