We are monuments

We are monuments

To the dead

Individual repositories

History

Written as backstory

Acted out

Entertainment value

The European theatre

Saturday matinees

Played out over a century

Never-ending

Battle-hardened warriors

Looking for a fight

Demanding answers

When they talk of peace

As the bombs still fall

Distant lands

Far enough away

To be disconnected

Unknown soldiers

Broken families

Teenage veterans

Finding a way to grow up

In torment.

What a way to run a railway

What did the British

Ever do for us?

Shortened the anthem

To leave out the violence.

Why pretend to know

What it means to be free

When nothing is left

Of home

But an urn

On the sideboard

And a word or two

Of verse

Written in the blood

Of the fallen

Colour coded

In red white and blue.

Battle scars are many

Sometimes they are hidden

By sad truths

And bad lies.