Eleventh of Everything

Sky dimly lit by crescent moon

That itself clothed mostly in shadow

Yields little light

On those battlefields which

One hundred years ago

Run red with bloody rivers.

War is not deserving of poetry

But the lives of young heroes are,

Death ought not have its praises sung

But the courageous acts

Of fearful boys should be told

In tomes with gilded edges.

Today at the eleventh of everything

When no more bullets sang

I will still this heart that beats

In a nation still free

To thank those who found strength

To leave their home

To defend its definition.

– Vagabond Prophet

For Remembrance Day

Courage

The war won by cowards.

Not heroes strong and true

Always knowing what to do.

Skinny little boys

Fear rattling their bones

Terror shaking their hands

Trying to aim at heads and hearts

Similarly quaking.

Souls such as these won every war

Girding their loins

Deciding action to protect their own,

To defeat the enemy,

To take back the land

More important than their fright.

The cost is great,

Young men upon dying

Finally sharpened their fear

Into courage in acts of debut bravery.

And now remembered as heroes

As they should be.

Courage casting its lustrous shadow

Backwards upon all past deeds

Redeeming them before falling on its sword.

– Vagabond Prophet