CANADIAN, EH? - poem

November plus eleven days
captures a collection
of tears, memories, fallen
blood lines etched in stone
within the pain of this cenotaph

as warriors they reigned, Holland
dykes to Vimy Ridge, Lebanon
then Kandahar, these boys from
Halifax factories, coal-mines in Cape
Breton, fishermen’s sons.

Hush as the bugler rings a call for
silence, heads bow,
hearts subdued, in quietness
until reveille – a plea for peace before
guns from other wars crowd
the sky with their menace.

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