Real-ity Check!

In a perfect world we would never need to remember...

But pray we never forget

for History forgotten is History repeated!

 (photos from one of the memorial parks we visited; this one at the Port of Sydney)

That was real blood and mud and tears

That stabbed their teeth and eyes

So we can kiss curls

Of very real boys and girls

And sing them sweet lullabies

That was real fear and fire that burned

At the cost of a nation’s sons

So the future could stand

With a dream in their hand

Not the dread of loaded guns

That was real love and life that lay

‘neath the splay of smoke and sky

So this plot of loam

That we call home

Could raise freedom’s banner high

That was real horror; a glimpse of hell

Where the shell of bombs still stains

The fields and streets

Where commerce competes

On the ashes of what remains

That was real Now that shaped history

And the crosses of those who gave all

Where none have the ‘right’

With Freedom’s hind-sight

To pillage Past’s scar-stricken hall

That was real cost; where the price of war

Proves freedom is never free

And each drop we sip

From its Cup that we tip

Should foster gratuity

© Janet Martin