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Nimrod

A nation stands with heads bowed to remember

on a cold and wintry November

Distant guns in a city park salute and fire

as we remember the funeral pyre

War upon war as a nation, we have valiantly fought

has this great sacrifice been for nought?

Poppies are worn and bands do play

but what does all this ceremony say?

It is right that due repect be given to memories past

but was any conflict ever really the last?

Throughout the land monuments do abound

as bugles play their haunting sound

Names from plaques are read out loud

each with its own particular tone and sound

What do the voices of the fallen say to us?

Cut down in their prime, their lives laid to rest

Will war forever be for man some human pest?

These monuments are not for those who gave their all

They are for us to remember and pay tribute to their fall

Dead soldiers point their fingers and sternly warn

thisis the greatest folly of them all

These great conflicts have so little achieved

only we who lie beneath the earth and our bereaved

◄ Afraid?

The Sunflower ►

Comments

elPintor

Sat 25th Mar 2017 13:11

Hi, Keith. The entire piece seems a sort of warning against the dangers of patriotic ceremony that is exercised without due reverence to history.

On war, from the movie Love and Anarchy, 1973--
"They've been fighting since the creation of the world. Explain it to me, all this justice. The dead stay dead, and that's it."
--maybe we're really no better off than that for all the wars that have been fought...I can't say. Though, I can't help but be thankful that there have been many who've stood to fight against many blatant tyrannies. As a human being, I don't believe I could live with any less than doing the same if I were given the choice.

I can't forget to mention the title. I mean, no one can deny it's importance. And, personally, I believe that choosing one that is not obviously related to the piece, itself, can cause the reader to think a bit more deeply about the subject and what the writer is trying to convey.

Thanks for sharing this and providing cause for contemplation.

elP

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