Armistice

My grandma’s brothers

John and Owen Trumble

Strong young men

The sort that didn’t grumble

Went off to war in France and Middle East

Didn’t come home

Never knew a feast

 

My father’s uncles

Handsome chaps they were

Commemorated now

On Tyldesley stone

John died out in Flanders

May 1916

Owen near Jerusalem

Close to God’s own home

 

Owen died in No Man’s Land

Attempting to help a pal

A sniper got him then

Christmas time and all

Today’s the day remembering

Young men at their post

Deprived of all that’s beautiful

Giving up the ghost

 

We’ve had our education

A hundred years of war

You’d think we’d learn

Think we’d know the score

That fighting wars is futile

Young folk pay the price

Negotiation always

Patience conquers vice

 

It’s good to know you think of me

I hear my uncles say

We did the best that we could do

In the struggles of our day

Let our stories talk to you

Let them say it clear

Nothing deserves such violence

It’s our lives we must hold dear

 

Brian Fahy

11 November 2021