November 13, 2016

Who Will Remember By T. L. Wiens



This is the first year I am free of having the school bus come to the yard. Until November, that was a fact I celebrated and missed nothing about being involved in the school system. But Remembrance Day always represented a special time in our house and the school Remembrance Day competitions were an opportunity to talk to my children and have them talk to the people who lived during the world wars.
 It’s been 70 years since WWII ended. The veterans who lived through that war are getting older and soon there will be no living person left to testify to the horrors of this war. All that will be left is the written accounts. 
It shows me  how important it is to get it in writing.

Here's my youngest daughter's last year Remembrance Day Poem.




Dust to Dust
By
Jenna Wiens

The wind blows
Dust into the soldier’s
Face.
His heart heavy
Thoughts of his family,
Home.
He walks on
His comrades
On either side.

The gun shots echo.
He falls
Blood stains the ground.
Images of his wife and children
Seep from his grasp.
His lips whisper a
Sweet, silent
Goodbye.

Honoured
At a grand church.
His family
Say their
Final goodbyes.
His body is returned
To the dust.
 

4 comments:

  1. thought provoking and beautiful. Thanks Tammy, for sharing.

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  2. We weren't that close to a Remembrance Day Service when I was a pre-schooler. I can remember Mom having the radio tuned to a Remembrance Day Service. We observed the Last Post and the Two-Minute Silence with our fellow Canadians. Mom's brother, my uncle, had served in Word War II.
    My husband and I were at the Service this past November 11 commemoration. Seeing and hearing the high school band play reminded us of the service when the kids were in school and two of our teens played in the band. Nostalgia. Thankfulness for our freedom, for the soldiers' service. I felt this when I read your daughter's poem. Tell her thanks.

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    Replies
    1. We didn't attend many services when I was young either. But we always honored the two minutes of silence.
      Later, I worked for the Department of Defense. It changed Remembrance Day from something far away and foreign to affecting people I knew in a very living way. I realize none of these where part of WWI or WW2, but some didn't come back from their missions. Many came back but the person I knew was gone. We need to never forgot.

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