Remembrance Day

Also Armistice Day, or Veterans' Day. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I (the then-most-ghastly-ever spree of killing technologies) officially ended, as per the armistice. This holiday salutes the fallen of WWI and other wars. The poppy has become its symbol ("poppy == war dead" goes back a further century), and they are sold, in fundraising drives. And resold to make heroin. No, not really.

As you read this, someone is dying in a war somewhere.

War and Remembrance

The world fell before our artless eyes.
What once was ours was left in broken ruin;
A lifeless, bloody field of corpses strewn,
Once soldiers, led by promises and lies.
This soldier had a loving wife at home
Who watched in tears as he did leave her side.
Another with a son had to decide;
To help his son, the trenches he did roam.

These bodies are still rampant with the past.
The hopes, and dreams, and loves of all these men
Died with them and since faded with the time.
But, memories surpass the end and last
To, on this day, bring forth to us again
The gory truth and pathos, too sublime.

- Aron Burrell (litui)

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This was originally written for a Grade 11 Drama Class presentation of Remembrance Day vignettes. I'll note that this was one of the most strange, gory, interpretive Remembrance Day productions I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. I think it was probably more hard-hitting for the cast than the high school audience, but regardless, it was good.