Wednesday November 11th, 2009

The exercise:

As it is Remembrance Day, your starter will be: rows of white crosses.

NaNo Word Count: 24,045
NaNo Target: 18,335

Mine:

So many lives cut short
By the report
Of heartless guns,
Fired by wide-eyed sons,
Who just followed orders
To protect their borders -
Mere lines on a map;
A geographic trap.

Now all that is left
Are wives bereft;
And mothers tears,
Fathers drowning in beers;
And rows of white crosses,
To mark their losses;
And every November,
A pause to remember.

3 comments:

Greg said...

Wow, that's very moving and poignant, Marc. As we came into Moncton a few hours ago we flew low over a cemetery as we came in to land and we could see all the poppy wreaths that had been laid out there.

I shall keep my eyes out for your surname in these parts, though since my hotel in on Main Street and so are the ALC offices, I'm not sure if I'll see much else.

Rows of white crosses

There's never been a harder time
To stand here, in the cold,
And behold
Row upon row of white crosses.
Too many men
Dying now, and died then,
And it doesn't feel real
Until it's one of your own.
Watching them carry the coffin,
Draped with a flag
That never meant much
Until that little boy died for it,
Believing in something I thought I didn't.
Well it seems that I did,
And now it might be too late
To tell you that I agree.
And so you go to your own white cross,
Because,
I can't think of anything more appropriate.

Marc said...

Well you'll have to make an effort to get out and see the city at least a little bit :)

Thanks for the kind words on the poem, I rather liked how it turned out myself.

My favorite part of yours:

"Too many men
Dying now, and died then,
And it doesn't feel real
Until it's one of your own."

Very nicely done.

morganna said...

Rows of white crosses march
Rank upon rank of brave
Men, gone to war
Dead for country and ideal.