Creative NaBloPoMo #11: In Mind (Poem)

It's Remembrance Day today. I always think of my maternal grandfather, who survived his service in the Pacific arena in World War II, but came back a changed man.

In Mind

It would be easy to say
at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember
But it would not be all that true
not every day
or only a few

Cast their thoughts daily to they
who got onto boats, wearing greens and new boots
and sailed away
not knowing what strange and bloody fruits

Would be born of that journey.
what terrors and trials and fearful ends
closed eyes on a gurney
the razing of friends

But we cannot think always of it;
they would not, in fact, wish us so
if they fought for a world fit
for laughter and hubris, and everyday woe

Or even if they fought for their Mum, or their King,
God, country or some other abstract
Or for absolutely nothing
Or to fulfill their dismal social contract

Of manliness. What does it matter why?
They fought. They died. Once a year
Is not too much to commend them to the sky
From us, living legacies, here.

- Kathy, 11/11/14