REMEMBRANCE DAY

Story ID:	1258
Written by:	Veronica Breen Hogle (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Irish Cultural Events
Story type:	Poem
Location:	Bagenalstown County Carlow Ireland
Year:	2006
Person:	Eileen nee Earls Breen

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Poem 2 of 21

By the late Eileen Breen
March 27, 1916 - May 5, 2006
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November skies overcast and gray
a fitting tribute to Remembrance Day
An old ex-soldier, one leg made of wood
bent down to pick a poppy from the mud
fallen from someone’s breast it lay
a blood red symbol of Remembrance Day

The years roll back, again he stood
there is the trenches in November mud
O’Brien, young McCarthy, Sullivan and Doyle
stood there beside him on Mons soil
overhead the scream of bursting shell
the air pregnant with death’s own smell

A comrade on his right gives forth a moan
and in a moment he lay there alone
his right leg gone, in agony he lay
it was the early dawn of Armistice Day
a tear fell on the poppy in his hand
he saw a row of crosses in a foreign land.