Remembrance

Remember those who have fallen,
who have lost
their lives for King and Country.

Remember those who didn't die
but lived as broken men,
reliving horrors,
and grieving friends.

Remember those who stayed
at home,
longing for news
of safe return,
dreading the formal
uniformed knock on the door,
and heart felt condolences
that did not ease the pain.

Remember those
who grew up fatherless,
who had no man
to follow that example,
who lived with widows
and orphans.

Remember those
who live now,
who do not understand
the tragedy of war,
and only glimpse
its re-enactment in movies
made to make money,
that can never capture
what it was truly like.

Remember those generations
that are to come,
and pray that
this whole world
is never engulfed
by war again.