We find them every time:
Those with names the same
As ours, the same age
As a brother or fellow student.

If this was your local regiment
Would you have volunteered?

“Not me I’m a coward.”
You’re no coward if you understand
That peace is a better way than war,
And you live as if that matters most.

24.10.2017 Fricourt

Air

A white butterfly flew into the crater,
Vast expanse of air lined with grass,
Held up by molecules, supported by atoms,
Summonsed by the mist, called to by birds.

24.10.2017 Lochnagar crater

The ridge 

When you stand at the top of Thiepval ridge,
And see the way they came, weighed down,
And look across the landscape still bearing signs,
One hundred years later you are still speechless.

JAL 24.10.2017 Thiepval