I Think Of That Grey Wall

I don’t care for religion

The padre is just white noise

He drones a while, and then a pause

And soon we hear the boom.

Pipe the Still.

And I start to think….

I look around those there

There are one or two from then

They slowly age, and their numbers thin

And we will thin, will age like them

I think of him down South

With the Guards in the heat and noise

His wounds were deep, unmarking, not seen

30 years on, blackness took him

I think of the sandbox

Of the screen and Op Minimise

A half-built airport becoming still,

Of a Lockheed and it’s only passenger

I think of podviniki

Of their treacherous end

Some thugs, a nurse a syringe on screen

And a widow’s fading cry

I think of that grey wall

I think of that long grey wall

So many written there, husbands, brothers, sons

Thousands more on walls elsewhere

I think of…..

Carry on.

And so thats it

Off we troop inside

All line up for our glass

And all smiles and cheer for one more year

And memories.