Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, and the kids and I are going to attend the service at the community centre. I want them to see and understand and realize the enormous sacrifice that was made and the tremendous debt we owe to the fallen soldiers and the veterans. I always ball like a baby at the service, especially when the old, fragile veterans proudly wearing their uniforms and medals, slowly make their way down the aisle to lay their wreaths; and to see the entire room full of people stand in honor of them, with hands over hearts, eyes glistening. This is a poem, written by Andrea Murray from Benalto, that was published in the Sylvan Lake News. It won first place in the senior poem category of the Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Contest. Andrea read her poem at the Remembrance Day service at the Alberta Legislative Assembly on Wednesday; then she heads to Ottawa where she'll attend the National Remembrance Day Service, where she and the three other winners will place a wreath on behalf of the youth of Canada. Her poem is also displayed in the Canadian War Museum from July 1st, 2008 to May 1st, 2009.
Make sure to have some tissues handy...
Wisps of Memory
by Andrea Murray, Benalto, AB.
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
Mud plasters my front, cold wind whips my back
Brace yourselves, lads, its another attack!
We leap from the pits, our guns ready to fire
Bravado drains steadily with the sweat we perspire.
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
Feather light touches, a close brush with death
Another bullet sings by with a quickly drawn breath.
My aim ne'er wavered, my death-knell rang true --
But always we wondered whose brother we slew.
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
Each new trembling step, each next furtive mile
Death marched among us and flashed her grim smile.
The lumps in the ground, the blood freshly spilled
Cry out from the ground like Cain's cursed first kill.
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
Numbed fingers and toes, starved stomachs grew tight
And still we pressed on, to fight the good fight
My dwindling troop, once foolishly brave
Now lie snuggled together in poorly dug graves.
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
The question remained, the dark shadow of thought
Will we ever return? Will freedom be bought?
Yet the darkest of all, the bringer of fear --
How long will the terror of war linger near?
Courage! they cried. For Country! and died.
It came with a price, this thing we hold close
Of everything else, Peace cost us the most.
Their last solemn gift -- thus protect it, we must
Lest the trials of our forefathers crumble to dust.
Courage! they cried. For Country! they died.
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