Poems

The Politician came, he stood on a tank; spoke of our service he came here to thank. The value he placed on those who were lost, the grieving of families who bore the whole cost. ‘Never forgotten’ that’s what he said ‘always we will honour our dead’ ‘Alive in our...

I dreamed I was alive instead of dead, body full with vigour, vibrant with promise of endless days to come. I dreamed I was alive instead of dead, and dreaming knew exactly how to live, how best to savour life until the end and fill each moment with a waking joy...

The poppies are blooming In Helmand now red, red against parched earth. Dust dry in the mouth. The poppies are blooming In Helmand now in fields flat where our comrades fell, dust dry in the mouth. Soon they will be gathered in as we were gathered in for the poppies...

My brothers and me, we liked to play war A great way to fight with no blood and the gore With sticks as our guns and pine cones for grenades We would fight and do battle in brave lightening raids! We’d play this as part of our Saturday fun The toughest would conquer...

I guess I was lucky no PTSD, terminal boredom did it for me. Civvy street - just a good doddle, Body guarding a famous young model. No bivvies, no packs no sergeants, no sand, no leaving your blood in a hot foreign land. The money was good, four times the pay, a flat...

It’s the one you don’t hear that gets you, sniper’s bullet maybe, honing in at two thousand feet a second plus. Even if it hits a limb you’ve had it. The first you’ll know of it is when you’re dead, looking down perhaps at a body folded in on itself, Looking down and...

When I was nine I had a .303 rifle, a real one with wooden stock metal trigger and webbing sling. The bullets, unfortunately, were imaginary – but we had plenty of ammo, Ricky and I, enough to get the job done. It was the best day of my child-hood playing War Games in...

A swirl of bagpipes sets it off, notes throttling each other, fighting for supremacy against a tartan sky. Princes Street Edinburgh on a sharp November morning the air cold enough to cut in slices and drop into a Gin and Tonic or perhaps a pint of Carlsburg, amber...

Every day I think of you In this land of green and blue I miss your smile and silken skin Imagine you safe our home within The days they come and soon they go It’s hot and wet and traffic slow So many nations hear with me But it’s your face each day I see Amongst the...

With burning smoke and bullets spray, Here comes the wrath of days, Like creeping fog in early may, Here comes the Dies Irae. With rockets scream and grenades throw, Here comes the wrath of days, So much blood where death will sow, Here comes the Dies Irae. With a...

I’m holding the body to-gether, I can’t really speak for the soul, they patched me up on the ward and say that I’m just about whole. The sweats in the night leave me shaking and in dreams there’s a horror that walks and whether I’m sleeping or waking there’s always a...

Bright illume round in the sky, Lifted high wit a rockets scream, We watch you fly, Showing the darkness what you mean. As your chute opens to the breeze, Like a hand easing you gently down, In your light everything sees, With the colour of dark grey and soft brown....

It was on the airport Road, a burning dash through dust swirled by spinning wheels Snatch Landrover bouncing over jagged humps, mobile coffin waiting to be filled - Then the whooomp of the roadside bomb, wheels lifting clear, helpless in black air. Floor splitting, no...

The beat of the drum has gone now my friend, now that we’re cold in the ground. The notes of the bugle strained to their end, now in our shrouds we are bound. Queen, Country and duties’ prime call, soldiers they mark and divide, we kept the faith we followed them all,...

Can you hear the slender notes of flutes climbing the soft night, weaving through silks which rise and fall with scents of musk heady on the air, enough to drown to-day enough to fall into tomorrow Glimpse of beauty, glimpse of sorrow, Beguiling with ancient promise,...

Molecule torn from molecule, sentience retreats, Water unbound returns from separate drops. Was it slow or swift this re-arranging of parts? How long the moment of dying when hot fusion of semtex and metal prises soul from body in a nano second, ripping life from...

Two thousand feet a second is the speed of death. Sharp points turning, turning. Bullets spin outstripping sound, cleaving air which flames bright in the closing day. This one’s personal, though, this one’s mine. Two thousand feet a second and death breathes a...

A soldier’s return Fighting hard in World War 1 Great battles against the Hun But this was to be the one The very last one A soldier’s return Fighting hard again in World War 2 So many more battles that did ensue So many lives lost in World War 2 The Nazis they...

We’re out on the front line again And the hot metal’s flying full by No armour, no cover, no backup Looks like it’s our turn to die. Some b****r back there got it wrong ‘just a recce, that’s all that we need’ but hell opened up when we got here all the demons of...

No it’s nothing to do with me, mate , that’s what I heard them all say: it’s nothing to do with me, mate- Me? I was looking the other way when the bombs fell and it turned to hell and even the children died. No, nothing to do with me mate, Me? - I’d crossed the road...

I heard it coming I heard it coming through the long, long night as I stood watch. and breath froze on Helmand’s plain. I heard it coming behind the scrape of boots on broken rock when you relieved me. I heard it coming, but could not see its shape or frame its...

They’ve done for us in the M.O.D., they’ve done for us to-day. Land Rovers with no armour have sent us on our way. Yes, they’ve done for us in the M.O.D. no money is what they said; so they saved themselves a packet, but that didn’t save the dead. Oh they’ve done for...

Winding sheets bind us close now, tight as babies newly swaddled in this fresh enclosing earth, but we cannot smell it – our senses stripped from living. No taste of cordite harsh upon the throat, no dry mouth blister to parch the tongue: no fear leashed, controlled,...

We who kept our faith and left so suddenly? You could say that bullet and bomb called us before our time into bright pastures of a shining eternity. You could say it was the armour thin enough to accommodate death’s invitation that did the trick: lack of air support,...

A BAG IS FOR LIFE! The posters scream Meat, raw and bloody Falls from re used carriers Thin with over use Onto the wet car park. A BAG IS FOR LIFE! Buy one today! Screams the sign By the check out till As it eats up the pounds From overloaded trolleys A BAG IS FOR...

So many strong and brave young people Who fight for our freedom to live With each generation they stand tall Some, their lives they had to give Because of war a young girl cries Her love will never return again She won’t be his bride next year Her heart aches, beats...

Every year we remember the fallen With a special day of prayer For all the thousands of our young Whose bodies lay heavens knows where In many graves all over the world Lost in far too many places Some graves are even without a name So no one can place their faces So...