WRITE THE WORLD REVIEW ARCHIVE

I remember
That sun-kissed evening in 1914,
The sky met the horizon melting blue and green.
My heart was grey.
How rude of the sky to project beauty and brightness when
The lightness of my life was being dimmed by such a crisis,
When my brother and father cannot see any horizon,
When their sky only contains black bits of bombs in different sizes.

I remember
The war would be quick,
We were promised
Just a short while from August,
Four or five rough months of fighting
For the Central Force demolished.
They broke their promise
“Home before Christmas” was awfully ambitious,
Left families and friends with plans that turned to be fictitious.

I remember
Anticipation of the mail brought chewed up fingernails
That stuttered upon the envelopes and letters that entailed
Fingers crossed in hopes that loss would not be written between the lines,
That there’d be signs of quick return so they’d disperse from the front lines.

I remember
That my fear came true on the day that two postcards turned into one,
Because my brother, God rest his soul, was a soldier braver than anyone and
My father wrote to me that he would see to the end of this cruel war.
He swore that every shot he took was bringing him closer to me at home.
He never got here.

I remember
November eleventh of nineteen eighteen,
hearts beating as they were reading the armistice that would seam
Our torn apart country and our lonely hearted dreams.
We respect the noble win of our veterans
That pioneered with eyes of tears the Canada we now live in.
An embodiment of valour they led our country with pride,
With poppies on our chests, lest we forget how they died.