Let not your thoughts betray you while you bow your head
How can we remember when none of us was there?
At best we stand in silence and contemplate the dead;
At some point though our minds drift, like as not, elsewhere –
These days a minute, perhaps two, can seem like hours
Not to check mobile phones for news we might have missed,
A text from a friend, or the latest football scores.
School kids might know that 'Dulce et decorum est'
Is not ice cream, but gas – GAS?? Is that your biggest threat?
Aren't nuclear missiles or cluster bombs now the story,
Or napalm, or even a hijacked passenger jet
Crashed into a tower block pro deo mori?
We're no further forward, let's not try to pretend –
The war to start all wars is yet to reach an end.
How can we remember when none of us was there?
At best we stand in silence and contemplate the dead;
At some point though our minds drift, like as not, elsewhere –
These days a minute, perhaps two, can seem like hours
Not to check mobile phones for news we might have missed,
A text from a friend, or the latest football scores.
School kids might know that 'Dulce et decorum est'
Is not ice cream, but gas – GAS?? Is that your biggest threat?
Aren't nuclear missiles or cluster bombs now the story,
Or napalm, or even a hijacked passenger jet
Crashed into a tower block pro deo mori?
We're no further forward, let's not try to pretend –
The war to start all wars is yet to reach an end.
