WHERE HEROES LIE

This warm sunny day
Amidst the birdsong and bees,
I sit
Considering the hard won peace
Where heroes lie.
There's a tear in my eye
But I cuff it dry,
My father wouldn't be proud
His steely gaze sees his lost friends
Still the hero to me.
Gentle summer breeze
Stroking the leaves on sentinel trees,
Faceless names
Inscribed row upon row
At attention for natures salute.
History written on blood soaked page
No one left for that war to wage,
Just manicured lawns
Where the boots once trod
For freedom, for friends, for god.
Endless stones where heroes lie
For us, so many had to die,
My father salutes them all
American, Canadians, so, so many
We must never forget them.
Here he lies, a pilot
When Spitfires ruled the sky,
A true friend and legend
Found again, united in peace.
We leave this vale of serenity
With its rows of fallen men,
Back to our world of the living
Maybe never to see
Where heroes lie.... Again.

Phil Hall  July 2014