As we approach this November time of remembrance it is 108 years since the start of World War One, and thus probably the largest scale of trench and widespread slaughter the world had seen at that time. The following races for bigger and more successful forms of large-scale killing are well documented, but feature in my poems included below, and these said mass murder techniques were tried and tested in the many theatres of conflict since 1918.
Please read, reflect, give thanks and maybe shed a tear or two for subsequent sacrifices.
Lessons to be Learnt
Your country needs you the posters said
And you can fight beside your chums,
So off they went to the war in France
And said goodbye to girls and mums.
Very ordinary chaps, not heroes yet
Were all excited, feeling hearts soar,
Marching off to their great adventure
To win a war that will end all war.
Well, that was the propaganda then
And may even have been said in fear,
For sadly that was not to happen
At any time after, or in a future year.
Because the unprecedented bloodbath
Caused mass suffering and deprivation,
As world war one’s attrition dragged on
With atrocities that stunned a nation.
So, men who were totally unprepared
Witnessed sights that shouldn’t be seen,
Like petrified men drowning in mud,
Gassed, or blown up in deaths obscene.
Thus casualty figures hardly believable
Rose as the slaughter went on unabated.
For that final push was regularly tried
On wasted, bloody ground not sated.
With thousands of men mowed down
Strewn in agony or a hideous death,
Many crucified across the barbed wire
As devil’s disciples gasped for breath,
While their evil work was continued
But performed by unknowing men,
Who had only answered a patriotic call
That took them to hell there and then.
And so agonising slaughter continued
By new weaponry invented to kill,
Flowers of a generation sent to solve
Arguments that war never will.
*
And now my prize-winning and multi-complimented poem from more modern times, that last year I read live on BBC Radio Sussex & Surrey and had the presenter, and apparently much of Sussex and Surrey in tears. Maybe you too?
Letter From Afghanistan
A letter sent back from Afghanistan
Was not something to receive,
For it was probably tragic news
With no one coming home on leave.
Or a letter could be hand delivered
Titled on the “occasion of my death”,
Penned for you by a loved one
And will take away your breath.
Because deploying troops are told
This was a letter they had to write,
Explaining their career commitments
And love for family while they fight.
Obviously when writing the letters
The authors hoped that it would be,
Just a precautionary exercise
And that nobody would need to see,
Their words of love and farewell
As they would return safe and sound.
So the “just in case it happened” mail,
Would not be homeward bound.
But sadly, many such letters needed
Reluctant opening by shaking hands,
To a feeling we can only imagine
As nobody completely understands,
This sickening and traumatic time
When this letter home is read.
For it can only have dire meaning,
And that their loved one is dead.
Fortunately, I never had to bear this
Although at times my heart would drop,
But I’ve met and seen such bereaved
And just know their pain won’t stop.
So, we must honour and appreciate
Our armed forces standing strong,
Who sacrifice and determine for us,
That very little will go wrong.
*
To be honest I was going to add a third poem about not “writing our world off”, but on reflection I think there is more than enough subject matter and words in just the two poems, so please join me, bow your head, give thanks and count our lucky stars it was them, not us!
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