The Lance Corporal
Do they matter? -- those dreams from the pit?
Siegfried Sassoon, "Does It Matter?"
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In the black and white photographs
the rain drops suspend like snow
round gnarled faces of veterans, be-
medalled, as they march to the cenotaph.
A First World War frieze of tramping
British Army soldiers, and today's Navy
tars, each with poppy in hat. Rain
drains onto stone flags in a color photo
below the line of red poppy wreaths,
and a blind lance corporal in
desert uniform, wounded in Iraq, is
escorted by two smart-dressed soldiers
to lay a wreath and meditate. Entitled
to mope, he will not; he prepares
to run the London Marathon,
cycle in tandem with his Dad round
French battlefields, for charity,
and so onward: "On yer bike, lad!"
Christopher T. George
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