We Remember

[Frostdrop1 1843]

 

We Remember

By sacrifice, we live. By idleness, we die. 

It is the common grief of many to lose a loved one to the honor of the battlefield, and, too, the grief of many to lose their honoring-place to the inferno of progress: a damnable abomination that spits in the face of our lost. 

In the moment, we honor our protectors. We praise and thank those who keep us safe. Let us honor them in death, too. 

Shall I stake my life on future kinsmen,

As those men filled with bravery must do,

When time lets safe communities forget,

As they rot in shallow graves, two by two,

Or do I turn to being woeful meek,

So I'm to gain the shelter access which,

By truthful measure, belongs not to me,

But owed to those who perished in loyalty?

 

Though we alive can fill our dreams all full,

They cost a gallant price of blood and iron,

And loss of paradise for those good boys,

Who proudly raise our banner high and fall,

And candid we do say: we remember,

Yet 'we' is not of me and you,

But paper - thin responsibility -

So we can rest in peaceful equity.

 

And suffocating below dirt and grime,

They toss and writhe in holes all freshly filled,

Then march towards their holy place of rest,

Come men and women with new arming blades,

Whose arms raise above and pierce down,

Smashing headstones

                                         Upon the ground,

And then we say: "we remember",

As scattered rubble seats silent phantoms.

 

Court Poet, Lady Felyska Amélya Weiss