Lest We Forget

It's approaching dawn on ANZAC day here in Los Angeles. I'm thousands of miles from home, and in a country that spends nearly as much on war as every other nation in the world combined, so I really felt the need to write about the ANZACs, and the term "Lest We Forget". To save me getting on a rant about US Foreign Policy I'm going skip to the poem I wrote just a moment ago.

My 98-year-old great-aunt still cries while telling the story of riding down to the port on her older brother's shoulders, before saying goodbye to him for what would turn out to be the last time. She tells the story like it was yesterday, not over 90 years ago. I will keep her weak old voice and teary eyes in my mind forever, and will pass the story on. I'm not writing her story in this poem, but I will another ANZAC Day.

It's also a relevant day to read my World War II based poem, To Value a Crust of Bread.


"Lest We Forget"

It could be so easy to forget
When the threats not there on our doorstep
But once men offered their lives without pay
To fight so we'd be free this day
So hopefully none of us would would have to see
The evils they saw endlessly

For if they lived and made it back home
Their dreams would return them to The Somme
Or Crete, or Giza, or Gallipoli 
Or their many days of torment spent at sea
But most would never speak a word
Of that hell made of blood, fear, fire and dirt

Where they saw their best friends injured and killed
And their hands had to render these same sorts of ills
On others who also had family and friends
While knowing any moment they may meet their ends
But yet pressing ahead with bravery and strength 
As they face death with fists and reddening mud in each trench
 
Those images will never be etched in our brains
And most of us will live for thirty-five thousand days
So at least one of those days in each three-sixty-five
We should stop and be thankful that we're free and alive
For the day we forget will soon be followed by
The day when thousands more of our loved ones die

So I'll remember the ANZACs and so will my kids
And may each new generation not be remiss
To say those 3 words "Lest we forget"
And remember their meaning for the living and dead