Remembrance Day I

The glorious dead
died in blood and
sweat and left us
tears to shed and
empty days to
walk and feed and
breathe - they
did not leave us ease
they left us
sorrow and dis-
ease an empty
waking heart - heart-
broken from the severance

a symbol of faith in
desperate times is
a wooden cross nailed
rough and ready, a
wood-tree  standing
proud and giving
hope to those who believe

a hard thing it is
for the living to go on
living after
the glorious dead
have won their war
and gone on ahead
without us.

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