ANZAC DAY 2020

FOR MANY YEARS I ROSE AT DAWN, TO HONOUR OUR GALLANT DEAD

THOSE WHO LEFT OUR NATION’S SHORES, OBLIVIOUS TO WHAT LAY AHEAD

BUT THIS YEAR I MUST STAND ALONE AND FACE A DEADLY SCOURGE

I CANNOT JOIN MY COMRADES, NO MATTER WHAT THE URGE

 

THROUGH THE CURSE OF NATURE, WE CAN’T GATHER AS A CROWD

AND SIGNS OF CLOSE AFFECTION, CANNOT BE ALLOWED

IT CAME FROM FAR ACROSS THE SEA, THERE WAS LITTLE WE COULD DO

DESPITE BOUNDARIES AND BORDERS, IT MANAGED TO SEEP THROUGH

 

IT TOOK THE SICK AND ELDERLY AND SOME STILL IN THEIR PRIME

AND ALL THE CURES OF THE PAST, DID NOT WORK THIS TIME

FOR ONE FACT MAN HAS NEVER LEARNED, ALONG THE RESEARCH TRACK

HOW TO FIGHT BLINDFOLDED, WITH ONE ARM BEHIND YOUR BACK

 

WE ALL HAD WITNESSED TERROR, IN PEACETIME AND IN WAR

SOME OF OUR BRAVE MEDICS, HAD SEEN IT ALL BEFORE

THERE WERE SO MANY REASONS AND THEORIES DID ABOUND

UNITED WITH ONE PURPOSE, A SOLUTION MUST BE FOUND

 

I BOW MY HEAD AND SAY A PRAYER AND RECALL THAT SACRED VOW

AS I FEEL THE AUTUMN CHILL, CRISP UPON MY BROW

I LISTEN TO THE WHISPERING BREEZE AND TURN TO BRIEFLY SEE

THE GHOSTS OF ALL OUR FALLEN, STANDING THERE WITH ME

 

By Tomas ‘Paddy’ Hamilton
25 April 2020

 

FILE PHOTO: Faces of Australian war veterans projected on a facade in Martin Place, Sydney, during an Anzac Day dawn service. Photo by Able Seaman Bonnie Gassner.

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