Saturday 3 September 2016

'BETTER LATE': WINCHESTER'S LATEST WW1 MEMORIAL...

Better Late…

White, clean, celestial and unblemished;
A bench tarries for the missing
Who would never return:
A war’s slate and conscience wiped clean,
Yet its resolve remained undiminished…

Combat equipment bundle lies mean,
Its marble sheen glistening
As a symbol, an abstract urn
For another spurned life,
Or perhaps the kit awaits
A new recruit, his tools for impending strife:
More fodder for the dismissing…

…and one pack-strap loops untidily, as if hurriedly fastened of late,
…or maybe it is a lure for the raw recruit to investigate…

Pete Ray
September 2016



The latest Winchester WW1 memorial, promised a long time ago to honour American soldiers who occupied Morn Camp near Winchester, but that promise was honoured only recently, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the war.

It was bland but very poignant and the looped strap bit hard at me… 







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