Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review

Elizabeth Grace Barrows

Visiting Valley Forge State Park on a February Afternoon

We walk where Revolutionaries tread,
Stopping to look in their cabins, marveling
At their smallness, and squinting at inscriptions
Of monuments to honor the masses of men
Who lost wars against cold and disease.

There were no battles here then, just camps
And horses and men. But now there’s us,
Afraid to spill our guts killing
Ourselves trying to keep them in.
It’s guerrilla warfare with us,

Sneaking through the lines
With rifles aimed at each other. It’s easier
To throw hand grenades and run the other
Way than to stand face to face and shoot
Our secrets across the line.

You ask a question about my starving-artist
Plans and tell me my options. “You could
Marry rich,” you say, pulling a pin.
“You’d better get rich, then,”
I want to say, but I ignore the rumbling

Ground, laugh instead and look away.
I retaliate with silence because I’m afraid
You will break the code in my voice.
Stillness of speech unsettles you, so you find
A safer topic and avoid my eyes.

I wonder when we will fold up our maps,
Put away our game plans, and wave
White flags. But surrendering means
Being taken captive; we’ve both
Been hostages before. We’re so good

at making battlefields, so good
at fighting against each other
even though we’re on the same side.
We’re so good at marking off territories,
Drawing lines, and so bad at using arms.

Elizabeth Grace Barrows a 1998 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, earned a BA in Composite Writing. She contributed regularly to the school’s literary magazine, Backroads as a writer and staff member. While as a student in high school, she won two PA Scholastic Writing Gold Keys in poetry.

Isaiah 61:1-3

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