I Think Of That Grey Wall

I don’t care about religion

The Sin Bosun's 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, the heat, the noise

His wounds were deep, no marks were seen

30 years and blackness took him

I think of the sandbox

The screen, Op Minimise

A half-built airport that would quieten

For a Lockheed and its passenger

I think of podviniki

Of their treacherous end

Some unnamed thugs, a syringe on screen

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 that's it

Off we troop inside

And line up for our glass

All smiles and cheer for one more year

And memories.