Fun in the Foxhole

 

I can’t imagine the experience

Ever, ever, ever, ever

Being entertaining

There’s death so near

Peril in every intake

 

While death companions

Other kinds of war

Experiences, too

By a design, it must seem

From nature by a

Predation of the elements

 

Then on each other when and where

We first throw down peace

Because parochial victory

Is a shinier aim

Fool’s gold can make that

But there might be joy sometime

Whether or not decreed

 

Decreed it was

The truce that broke out for Christmas

When the trenches could not

Hold hate enough

And must give way to silly, life-

Giving, temporary treasures

Shared in hand-grips (no longer strained

by guns)

And in games

Talk in whatever language

Enmity turned ally for a day

 

Too easy to

Beweep our outcast state

To isolate ourselves with agony

Truly earned, deserved

Loss that will not have an end

To emptiness until all

Waiting

Mortal and divine

Is done

 

Call it or call it after

But might there be some pleasure from

A moment of sensation?

Something to say

Yes, that was funny

Yes, I’d like to share a cup of tea

And maybe eat something

Yes, there’s a holiday

We can have it

Or avoid it

Then make our own

A mischief tyranny of joy

 

I’m not sure what I’m proposing

Cheer, giving over something

Sliding the weight along to let it out

Maybe no one has to know

Only the few who understand

 

Maybe a public moment,

Yes

To say, we grieve

We must

But there’s a turning

Pushed in Ecclesiastes as

The time to dance

And while in ancient times there

Could be dance for death,

Our dances go more joyfully,

I think,

Which is a good modern choice

 

C L Couch

 

 

DeFacto – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48650239

Football Remembers memorial, designed by Spencer Turner, at the National Memorial Arboretum