Untitled Poem

Bells tolled
exactly
on
the eleventh second
of
the eleventh minute
of
the eleventh hour
of
the eleventh day
of
the eleventh month
1918
anno Domini

Armistice

Edwardians had a flair for dramatics

when Father returned home
one of the two men
who went to France
with the cavalry regiment
Lord Strathcona
organized and financed
in 1914
he left an entire generation of men
skewered
in the Belleau woods
in French and German trenches
heroes all
both the quick and the dead

every year
thereafter
solemn churches
provided
solemn services
before
solemn parades
marched
to honor
the bravery of men
who fought
the War To End All Wars

as soon as the ink dried
on the Treaty of Versailles
it was used
to start little bonfires
of war
until 1939
when Europe
and the entire British Empire
became one giant conflagration
which manufactured
a new group
of heroes

Mother cried even though
I told her
Jack would never
go to war
like father
then Pearl Harbor happened
Cassie said
it was about time
The States
got into
the war

no one spoke of
The Korean Conflict
except Jack
who reminded us
he fished dead sailors
out of the North Atlantic
while chasing German submarines
besides
he said
he only volunteered
for every other war

I opposed the Viet Nam War
we already had more heroes
than the Veterans Administration
and Walter Reed hospital
wanted to deal with

why make more

then we did

Grenada
The Desert War
Bosnia
Somalia
Afghanistan
and now
Iraq
filling the cemetray at Fort Rosecrans
to over flowing
leaving
November 11
just another day
to shop the sales.

Marion B. E. November 2003