Dunford and Kelly braved the rain
leaving SCOTUS to sit high and dry,
with the First Lady perhaps, more likely alone,
dolefully watching TV.
Everyone agreed it was a bad hair day,
but other world leaders refused to be daunted,
and, at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery,
they honored the American dead.
They stood and prayed in the light French rain
on the brow of the hill above Belleau Wood,
where the charging Marines were cut down:
nearly 10,000 casualties, nearly 2,000 killed.
And the president chose to watch TV,
high and dry and far from the fray,
at 41 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré,
the ambassador’s digs, on Armistice Day.
Home again,
the Supreme Commander skipped Arlington.
