One Hundred Years Ago
\nby cricketjeff on October 28, 2014.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nAt the time they were the heroes who defended all we knew,
\nThey fought with classic tactics that new weapons overthrew;
\nTo start the British Cavalry drew swords and charged the lines
\nBut men were killed by Lewis guns and blown apart by mines.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The leaders of the nations chose their teams
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And fashioned better futures in their dreams.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\nThe flesh of human bodies can’t withstand explosive force,
\nSo digging holes and trenches was these soldiers’ one recourse.
\nBarbed wire and blinkless snipers soon created no-man’s land
\nAnd years of static struggle then replaced what generals planned.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Great wars are not confined to battlefields,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Those left at home aren’t safe behind their shields.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\nBrave men in feeble aircraft, next-door heroes on the seas,
\nFought the elements that faced them as they faced their enemies.
\nPoison gases drowned their victims, massive shells blew them apart,
\nTanks and lorries full of slaughter stood in place of horse and cart.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Empires all defended what they held,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Cementing other nations in the meld.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\nEach generation sees itself inside its history,
\nToo easily the past becomes a written mystery
\nBut facts and motivations cannot be a duotone,
\nWhat right have we to judge them, to condemn, or to condone?
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The lessons we’ve not learned were dearly bought,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A war must be a last, not first, resort.
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\n Author notes
\nNot sure about this yet, but we’ll see how it feels as I fettle it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Hundred Years Ago by cricketjeff on October 28, 2014.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved At the time they were the heroes who defended all we knew, They fought with classic tactics that new weapons overthrew; To start the British Cavalry drew swords and charged the lines But men were killed by Lewis guns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9732,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5456","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6052,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5456\/revisions\/6052"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}