Thursday, November 10, 2022

If They Knew

People place poppies on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial following the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa, on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

If they knew from that eternal vacuum

of dark foreboding dreaded by those

still living would it give them any comfort 

that their willingness to fight for the liberty

security and safety of others which cost 

them their future that on the eleventh hour 

of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 

the solemn ritual dedicated to remembrance 

would see the world pause to honour them?

From the Great Beyond would the world 

hear that low moan, a shudder of regret 

intermingled with the agony of knowing 

their sacrifice won a brief interlude before 

the next war arose? Cold comfort indeed.

We have broken faith with those who died.


 

 

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