Thiepval Memorial

I can almost smell the cold.
A light mist I can hide behind.

It is violating, probing
And yet...
And yet it belongs here

Here, where men and boys
Lived, slept, fought, died
All those years ago.

It's almost gone now -
The trenches overgrown;
The scarred ground long since scabbed over and healed.

It's beautiful, revered.
The haunting memorial towers over eveything;
Birdsong chirps as it did then
But other than that...

Silence.

Hushed voices whisper above
Rows of neat, white graves.
A sign of respect
All we can give now.

by Samantha Pavely, De Montfort University, Leicester, England