Author's Note: Inspired by the quote, "Kemmerich has lost his foot. The leg is amputated," and how Kemmerich later died from his injuries, I decided to again reflect upon the motif that has impacted me the most and meant the most to me--feet, and how they display every part of us, our personalities, our experiences, and our life stories--that has been displayed in All Quiet on the Western Front. Although the feet of the soldiers may not have been literally cut off, that separation represents death, and how when one's life story ends, so does his life
Footsteps
Head down,
Watching my feet tread on
With a crisp sound,
They crunch the dry,
Hard straw beneath,
My every step.
My leather boots,
Worn to exhaustion,
Can take no more.
Their soles drenched,
Stained in blood,
Displaying my life--
Everywhere I have been,
Everything I have experienced.
With every last effort,
I continue to climb over
The endless piles--
Piles of the lost souls,
The souls of my friends,
My best friends.
Laying lifeless on the battleground,
Their shoes have been removed,
Their feet severed,
Leaving incomplete bodies,
Incomplete stories,
Incomplete lives,
Helpless, hopeless...
Dead.
Yes! It is actually the loss of his sense of self established before the war, his figurative feet he stood on, that have been lost in the immorality of war! Well done.
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