The First World War is understandably preoccupying the public this centenary year.
But here Brian Johnstone offers a poignant reflection on a more recent conflict. His poem comes from Songs of Other Places, New Writing Scotland 32, edited by Gerry Cambridge and Zoe Strachan (ASLS, £9.95).
DETAIL
The Falklands Conflict, 1982
They called a spade, a spade; a grave
a grave, and duty unequivocal. His, to lead
the burial detail out to what the islanders
called camp. Body bags scarce, they laid then out
as if for night, each sleeping sack a winding sheet.
Too late, his flinch as the soil went in, the load
misaimed, the heft of his spade mistimed,
revealing the face of his mate below. Too late
to turn, too late to escape the stare that said,
I am not dead, even though he knew it was a lie.
They called a scare, a scare; a shock, a shock;
endurance indispensable. His, to yomp on
through the future, that face ever there: a friend
who never said to him, Don't bury me, but says it
every waking hour in all the trenches of his brain.
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