How Rifleman Brown Came to Valhalla

In a fantastical lower hall of Valhalla, the nameless dead of the trenches gather around their beer, cigarettes, and battered weapons. Into their company arrives Rifleman Joseph Brown, astonishingly clean and uninjured, with an unfleshed bayonet and a full-charged magazine. The maimed veterans demand to know how a soldier untouched by battle can claim a place among those who have paid for theirs in blood.

Brown says nothing, waiting for another man to speak on his behalf. Then a badly wounded comrade bursts in and recounts the terrifying night when enemy machine guns gave way to a deadly gas attack. While Brown stands exposed in the listening-post, he recognizes the danger and sounds the warning that saves his platoon—despite having been told that his duty was little more than to beat the gong. Blending trench realism, dark humor, and mythic imagination, this dramatic wartime poem honors courage that leaves no medal, scar, or public record behind.