Grandfather's Medals

from the Great War glimmer
in the wooden box, their
rainbowed ribbons drooping

over the wooden barricades,
gewgaws not given for heroism,
just for having served and survived,

his brass Lancs Fusiliers cap badge
with a Sphinx with cat-wafting tail,
symbolic of another war, another place.



Christopher T. George



Lancashire Fusiliers Cap Badge