elanya

I always feel sort of bad that there is much around (that I'm aware) for Remembrance/Veteran's Day stuff in the States. Not the way they do it back home, marching thinning ranks old men down to the cenotaph to lay wreaths and read sad lists of named while laying poppy wreaths and listening to The last Post, standing there for your minute of silence and actually thinking - what did this all mean?

When I was in Cadets, we were always in the parade, dressed in uniform. When I was in the city marching band, we would play for the procession, also. I remember attending ceremonies when I was younger too. I don't know - maybe that's all why I take it seriously. I am always sad that I don't have a poppy to wear, but I never think to get someone to send me one.

For lack of better things to do, I usually spend some time reading war poetry. Some people on LJ and facebook have posted some good stuff, but have a couple of really depressing ones from Siegfried Sassoon:

Suicide in the Trenches

I KNEW a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

. . . .

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.


The Survivors

NO doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again,'--
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.


So, thanks to all those who have, and do, and will put themselves on the line... For our freedom, I suppose, and the rights and freedoms of others.