The Torch

They represent our investment
in the future, those national
monuments depicting the fallen
and the victorious, although
neither signal triumph but rather
stern gloom at what humankind
has wrought in the wholesale
destruction of civilized norms,
the bombing of society's welfare,
the agony of survivors mourning
their dead, never seeming to learn
from one generation to the one
following, these golden rules of
moderation, tolerance and care
for one another. Those annual
national commemorations 
recalling our debt to those who
act on the battlefield to deny
tyrants their pursuit of global
conquest viewed as an obligation
in veneration of peace and liberty.
The contorted values of merciless
ideologies ravenously devour
social contracts pursuing a global
compact of humanity's desire to
live harmoniously, inciting clan,
tribe, ethnicity and the primal
territorial imperative. All this a
struggle between the good and
the evil that we inherit. And so,
we honour the tradition, lest we
forget, of remembering with the
grave pomp and ceremony it
deserves, aged veterans of aged
wars honoured for their sacrifice
their wrinkled grey visages
a fragile mask of bewilderment.