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Angus Peter Campbell

Dawn, 1st July 1916, The Somme

Dawn
Written and read by Angus Peter Campbell

by Angus Peter Campbell

At this very moment

Catrìona will be milking the cow.

Her beautiful hands soothing the udder,

the milk squirting into the wooden pail.

Later, she will make cheese.

We crouch here, waiting

in the mist.

Death has been delayed by the weather for days.

The silver sun rises in the east

and the haze vanishes:

What a perfect day to harness the horse for ploughing,

to walk down to the machair to check on the potatoes.

Now the guns roar

And the whistles blow

And we rise, running forward in our thousands -

Sons, fathers, brothers, lovers, comrades.

If we die, we die for each other.

If I live, I live for Catriona alone.

The Western Front, 2016

We walk in groups,

The Western Front, 2016
Written and read by Angus Peter Campbell

led by guides down

wooden walkways

(they are installing disabled access)

The engraved signs and illuminated maps

make cartography of the carnage,

while the millions of white crosses

mark the democracy of death.

Some leave the group,

find a place to stand alone,

thinking of Hans and Donald

chocking here in the gas and mud.

Legs and skulls have been swept away.

Today is a beautiful Summer’s morning.

The birds sing their angelus in the trees,

the apples hang from the branches:

The guide tells us this was an orchard

long before the guns roared,

though this sacred silence will not see Eden restored.

I think of the Gaelic proverb:
‘S e deireadh gach cogadh sìth:

The end of every war is peace.

There is thunder in the air.