*Poem Post: "The Toes that Bind Us - Lines for Armistice Day"

"The toes that bind us

- Lines for Armistice Day"

Outside, in the dead of night,

The rain hammers the 

Ostentatious decking

Around this half-penny whistle

Of a house I call home.

Hunched over, 

Perched on the edge 

Of the oak-tabled ledge

The flames roar before me

As tentative 2K toes 

Splay naked, eager for warmth.

But how much luckier 

Mine that theirs

Who served a century ago

On western fronts

Entombed in snow?

Their penury now is digitised 

But surely a heart familiarised

With trenched-trauma, 

Rhyme and verse,

Could not but be 

Moved to converse

With something stirring

Stark within,

(Well past the reach of faith or sin)

As through the loam and 

Blood and fear 

Did many,

Far younger that I, dare.

Alas! Such debts one 

Can't repay, 

And never will I get to say

To those whose 

Ghostly memories bade,

And conferred to me 

A century hence;

Your lice weren't given 

For diffidence.