Remembrance

Remembrance

Poppies pinned onto our cassocks

we choirboys stood in solemn silence

for two long minutes , recall the fallen

who died back when our folks were young.

Brothers, fathers, sons and husbands,

gave their lives like Christ before them.

Roll of honour , read by the Rector,

the  glorious fallen from both world wars.

My memory is my parents’ tales,

air raid nights with gasmasked faces,

screaming sirens , cold dark shelters,

searchlights sweeping, buildings bombed.

Childrens’ games in rubbled streets,

 alertly listening  round the wireless,

ration books for food and clothing,

lying awake for fear of bombing.

Two minutes over, the all clear sounds,

the Last Post call erupts all around,

we fumble with hymnbooks in well scrubbed hands,

remembering the soldiers who died for this land.