Light at the End of the Century, by Alun Robert

Tyne Cot Cemetery, by Alun Robert (Scotland). Contemporary.

Light at the End of the Century

I sense you in the shards
Of November twilight
Cascading across from Ypres
Another day set to rest

When I feel your monologue
In dulcet tones
Proffering your gratitude
To we lions led by donkeys
For our bravery, for our courage
In an ecstasy of fighting
Though horror of laying down lives
By me and my comrades

From all over the Empire
Across many oceans
To the futility of the Great War
A conflict bellicose
Too obscure, too confusing
To mortals like us

Enlisted and conscripted
Carried into heinous conflict
To a war to end all wars
Battles to be remembered, for
We were due home by Christmas
If not before

I believe you when you cry
Of the carnage, the travesty
As we lie here in front of you
Near twelve thousand young men
Taken on Passchendaele ridge
Now next cottages of Tyne
A microcosm of the millions
Gone well before our time

Yet I no longer smell cordite
No longer ingest mustard agent
No longer feel pain, then
You must have achieved peace
In our time
In your time too
When cruelty to brothers, to sisters
Has been eradicated
Vanquished from our globe

Though your shake of the head
In despair, in realisation
Suggests that the folly
Of the Great War has been lost
On politicians of power
Those embers of great men

As I wander through your psyche
To domains I don’t know
Where conflict is constant
In life beyond horizons
To mortals like us

While I wonder if you’re my descendent
And if not
Why you care
With history casting shadows
Over years following on
For a century has passed
And your friends were our foes

Then I sense your departure
After November twilight
In the direction of Ypres
And another site ticked.

Dedicated to the brave sons of the British Commonwealth
taken during the Great War of 1914-18 and
buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Flanders

Alun Robert

Born in Scotland of Irish lineage, Alun Robert is a prolific creator of lyrical verse achieving success in poetry competitions in Europe and North America. His poems have featured in international literary magazines, anthologies and on the web. He is particularly inspired by ekphrastic challenges.
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