Glory takes Time
One opened an Oxo cube tin
and showed me the medals
and ribbons and papers
and said they were trinkets
and no longer shiny
and glorious; his old decorations
they were. And he told me
again of a war
and of days in the fog
and the trenches
and of some of their boys
he had shot
(or maybe had not) for the whore
of ribbons and gongs.
You are such a thoughtful man Gwil. This is such a carefully worked out sonnet and it has a painful message.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comment. I was recently at the Venice Biennale and took some photos of detail in some of the exhibits which appealed to me.
ReplyDeleteYou lucky thing going to the Venice Biennale. Venice has always been my favourite place. I went back with the farmer when we were first married and it was not to his tast at all (flooded while we were there several times). I wish I hadn't gone back - it never does to go back does it?
ReplyDeletePat, I'll be coming to Venice as a place to be in a future post - while there I attended a demo and took photos of the protest. You'll see it has changed a great deal.
ReplyDelete