Colleville-Sur-Mer, Normandy

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Colleville-Sur-Mer, Normandy

For once the set of a movie and reality
Seem the same – white-glinted marble
Crucifixes and Stars of David memorialize,
As far as the eye can comprehend the waste,
The blind commitment to a rallying idea.

A group of teenage boys play, avoiding
Rugby tackles, dodging and weaving through
The mathematical intricacies of serried
Row upon row, until appalled and indulgent
Stares quieten them to embarrassed bravado.

It is now dusk. Their names, gold-carved, turn grey
And ghost-fettered. I realise a strange reverence
Has stilled me to private tears for men deprived
Of the hurts and the hopes that we, daily, muddle through.

[joe]

Hi
Ive be'en ther also
There is an almost reverential athmosphere
It made me realise the futility of war
I like the way you captured the formality of the cemetry
Joe

[Byron]

Travelling through northern France, we have driven passed the Canadian War memorial several times.

Never without a tear.