A fawlty Basil
Say’s don’t mention
The war, what war,
Of tragedy
A comedy is made.

What words of war today
Are not spoken;
Do two and two make four
Does 9/11 plus 7/7 make war,
Is terror recessed
In a memory store rarely recalled.

Wake up dear world
Talk, talk and talk
Ask are the Taliban plus Pakistan plus Afghanistan
Fears that invade our thoughts;
The military our unsung heroes
Who patrol pathways
So far from here,
Where suicidal ideation
Extinguishes lives,
Where in faraway hills
And hidden fields
Poppies not for memorial grow.

So free are we
To live life as we please,
Not hindered by gender
Race or creed.

Thoughts of gratitude, rarely expressed;
Do we have to wait for
Basil to reopen his fawlty towers,
To mention the war
What war?