Paul Warren Poems

There's the stories
I don't need to know
Of terrible things
In grand awful shows
...

When this old world is troublin' me
And I can't make sense of what I see
I close my eyes and think again
Of the wonders to behold with no need to pretend
...

These enduring memories
Keep tripping me up you see
Of all those times I remember
Each kept alive from a flickering ember
...

For those who bled
And in the front led
For those who stood together
And to them we were tethered
...

An Australian Christmas turns it around
Those from the north know we are upside down
The temperature shows 30 degrees on the dial
And sunny days at the beach puts a smile all the while
...

How far did you ride your bike
In the summertime before they turned out the streetlights
With mates no matter the weather
To each one that you were tethered
...

We were teens just outta school
Did we really know what was the plan
Some did I suppose and weren't a fool
When we fronted with suitcase in hand
...

Perhaps it was the machine-gun's infernal chatter
As it mowed down his mates like they didn't matter
Or was it the sight of his mates blown to pieces
As the hell of the Somme battlefield increases
...

What does it mean I heard you say
Those times and places of yesterday
The voices I still hear in my head
Are a comfort now not a tear instead
...

I was thinking of the last Dawn Service I took my mother to at the War Memorial on North Terrace, Adelaide…. Lest we Forget

ANZAC in Australia
...