MONUMENTAL
Western Hill. Monument.
Straight as a die, white as a bone.
Lest we forget.
Modest plaques spell out their names:
boys who knew to dot ‘I’s and cross ‘t’s,
put ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c,’ not forget
full stops. Ypres. The Somme. Fromelles.
Lost at sea.
1925.
Architect, General, Builder, Mayor,
smiling still up on Western Hill
for the camera, which blinks
like an eye.
2015.
Pre-dawn drizzle. Cars left empty.
Dripping brollies, bowed heads:
the last phantom note.
Lest we forget.
Her son tugs her coat. ‘Ssh! Not yet!’
Snub nosed impudent face,
upthrust middle finger:
straight as a die, white as a bone.
(Dorothy Simmons)
This poem was published in Tamba, 2017, in Shepparton, Victoria.
