GRATEFUL
THE GRATEFUL (?) UN-DEAD
Today I sit at the edge of our city in a
military cemetery a stone’s throw from
Lake Ontario A Grade 1 class has come
to lay a wreath at the feet of a statue marking
a soldier’s grave A teacher shrieks: Everyone
has to look at the statue NOW! There must be
a gentler way to take their innocence no?
Today is the day we honour the fallen soldiers of
THE GREAT WAR where in places called Somme
Verdun Dieppe Canadian ghosts are out in droves
It’s Remembrance Day & the old cemetery is covered
with grass The smell of rotting leaves wafts up as
designer dogs dig holes
With a poppy blood red +woundlike fastened to
my chest I mingle with the ghosts & wonder how the
5 yr. old son of Cpl. Cirillo is faring His father cut down
just weeks ago by a young homegrown jihadi
It seems there are old wars +new wars Wars from bunkers
+wars from caves The children’s wreath is blowing along King St.
now & a canine ghost sits at attention beside the soldier’s grave
__
..in wild nights, chased by dogs and other sounds, when you’ve been lost
a long time, when you have no other place.
Anne Michaels 1991
Late Fall 2014 RIP 9 million soldiers + 7 million civilians
