25/04/19 - ANZAC Day

"Coo-ee!

War!

Them Tommies are off to war!"

Your feet have run you through the streets,

To declare what they're fighting for.

Enlistments.

Newspapers.

Posters on every wall.

Your feet have marched you off to battle,

To answer the trumpet's call.

Rifles.

Bayonets.

A hand grenade in belt.

Your feet managed to get you up that hill,

And passed all that death that you'd smelt.

Explosions.

Gunfire.

Disease, rats and mud.

Your feet have dragged you further upstream,

Through raging trenches of blood.

"Get down!"

Too late.

Here ends your desperate fight.

Your feet stopped there, in poppied fields.

But we will remember you, tonight:

For how you ran, 

For how you marched, 

And for how you managed to fight.

You dragged yourself through rivers of blood,

Now those poppies honour your might.

- Ray

Photo by Thomas Q on Unsplash