16 July 2012
Are you watching, British Tommies, from somewhere up above? Do you see the tiny village square in the country that you love? Do you see the little children hand in hand and two by two lay their posies on the ground in memory of you? If you do, then you'll see them smiling as they laugh and skip and play; for reverence and innocence are strangers anyway.
Are you watching, British Tommies, silent and unseen? Do you see the growing families, the pub, the village green? The quiet and lonely marshes reach out and touch the sea; still unchanged and beautiful; still British and still free.
Though we talk in terms of valour, of conquerors and kings, British Tommies fought and died to save the simple things. So as we all pay tribute in silent requiem, the flowers of the children will mean the most to them.
TOM MAY
Remembrance in a Blackwater Village • Opuss № I