Vice-Regal Saint: We Will Remember Them
A WAR FILM, by Teresa Hooley (b. 1888)
I saw,
With a catch of the breath and the heart’s uplifting,
Sorrow and pride,
‘The week’s great draw’ -
The Mons Retreat;
The ‘Old Contemptibles’ who fought, and died,
The horror and the anguish and the glory.
As in a dream,
Still hearing machine-guns rattle and shells scream,
I came out into the street.
When the day was done,
My little son
Wondered at bath-time why I kissed him so,
Naked upon my knee.
How could he know
The sudden terror that assaulted me?...
The body I had borne
Nine moons beneath my heart,
A part of me…
If, someday,
It should be taken away
To War. Tortured. Torn.
Slain.
Rotting in No Man’s Land, out in the rain -
My little son…
Yet all those men had mothers, every one.
How should he know
Why I kissed and kissed him, crooning his name?
He thought that I was daft.
He thought it was a game,
And laughed, and laughed.
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2 comments:
What a lovely and moving piece.
When I think of the sacrifices of our forefathers, especially those from my own family who were shot, drowned or just blown up, you cannot help but be moved. It is so important we remember them and honour them. Lives lost before they had begun.
Just think for a moment - they died for all of us so that today we could be free to rile those republicans, mock nationalists and send up the socialists on this blog. :-)
It's never too late to make a donation.
http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/
Tomorrow, 90 years, and they've all died for nothing! Germany, UK, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, czar's Russia, Portugal.... millions of dead, destruction of Europe, republics who generate dictators everywhere. Useless sacrifice for the greed of some people. If the Kaiser's grandson would remain on the german throne, Hitler would be impossible. Churchill was right.
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