Over

I heard that peace had met its price at last

A bell once banned now tolled me so to say

Through the sound of grinding teeth decayed

A distant cheer was raised six miles away

That broke a mustered silence come to pass

Some things are best forever blamed

When peace no longer has a frame

They say it's over

I saw the dust unsettled far from homes

Retreating tracks, their flags now waving in

Some distant fields of vision grown so thin

From war now won or lost – what now begins

Lies scattered to the world like all these stones

They say it's over

I spoke once shouting, coughed, it's hand to friends

Made mirror nervous as their eyes like glass

Reflected shard – like sounds of bombs and blasts

And blinks – voices raised again and fast

A past unburied had to wait again, again, again

I smelt the fear of years to come before

Some passive judge of time and history

Will talk of lessons learnt for all to see

Through holes in walls we made to keep the peace

Now weakly redefined as the lack of war