We remember them
For time does not dim the loss
Of those whose lives were the cost
Of peace, enjoyed yet too briefly.
We remember them
These young men who went to war
To defend the vulnerable, the weak, the young
All of us, for they believed themselves too strong
For bullets or bombs or knives
Wielded by those they believed
Defenceless.
One moment of carelessness
They die on foreign soils amid rocky hills
On beaches and shores of other lands
Nicked by a stranger's weapon.
We remember them
Because we do forget
Our countrymen, our soldiers, our fathers, our brothers
Our nephews, our sons and our husbands all.
We remember them
Missing the upturn of a mouth,
Joyful laughter, moments treasured,
an arm draped
Across a shoulder,
Strong, too solid
For a deathly touch, which for some
Follows no rules and when there are no options
The soul flies off in an instant
Returning to the greater soul
Understanding, it leaves just a shell
But we who are left,
Remember the divinity of its spark
The holiness it once contained.
And we do mourn
Young blood cut down;
swallowed by a hungry maw
Of the warrior god gone manic
In a blood lust
For more and more.
We remember them
Their lives, their names and stories
Now but whispers in the coming storms,
Their faces etched
Acid grief on the mind.
We stand trembling on the brink
Where they stood to the end a firm link
Ready to defend and to die.
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