A Chill in the Air

A poem inspired by a visit I made several years ago to the First World War cemeteries in France. It was so sad and moving to see so many graves. Many of them teenage boys.

There’s a chill in the air over France this night

And winter’s white shroud will soon be unfurled

Over the graves of the lads who died in the fight

Of the war styled Great by an ignorant world

 

White cemetery walls will offer no grace

To the piercing wind that bites from the West

7000 bodies interred in this place

7000 ghosts who will never find rest

 

7000 households infected with grief

No mother should see her young boy at sleep

No father should mourn his son’s life so brief

No brother, no sister, for a young man should weep

 

7000 reminders of men in their prime

Enlisted so bravely, their people so proud

7000 souls surrendered to time

7000 white stones mark out a sad crowd

 

Scant shrines provided by families bereaved

Each one a life ended without a farewell

Victory by Christmas, how they were deceived

The promise of Heaven, instead it was Hell

 

 

My spirit stands proud with head sadly bowed

Eternally bound to the grave where I lay

Too young to shave, but dying’s allowed

No party for me on my 18^th birthday

 

But my name, my years, and the symbol of Christ

No history of life on my gravestone is worn

No value to man has my passing been priced

Just one more poor Tommy with prospects stillborn

 

My lips never warmed by a young lover’s kiss

Nor ever caressed by a sweetheart’s embrace

No wedding for me, no familial bliss

Remembrance is the only Church Service I’ll face

 

There’s a chill in the air over France this night

Take comfort that you are not sharing with me

Lament, as you warm in your bedrooms delight

For the life I’ve forsaken to keep your life free

 

Reviews

[Beccy]

Impossible to count the millions and millions of souls who have perished since our species first stood upright.

The fight for so called freedom will never end, we are genetically programmed to ensure it will never be. So sad, so very sad.

Beccy