THE TRUCE
(Exactly one hundred years ago in 1914
the world was at war and the soldiers
believed it would all be over by Christmas)
All winter we fought to go home
and in the end we killed and they killed us,
a promise never kept.
Now it’s far too late, too late you see –
for the robins rest on frozen fists
in the great corpse trench,
snow blankets all the dead,
where every night we ran to ground
‘neath furrows of blood and guts
when thunder strafed down
devouring all our hearts,
before the midnight moon
picked out the forlorn path
above our little war,
between the trapping wire
where some brave lads ventured out
on hearing the Silent Night
cross over No Man’s Land’s red stains
of men where once men were;
and there they met between the gaps
to sing the chorus, kick a ball,
share rum and schnapps,
light candles in the dark,
until the Generals ordered – shoot that moon,
and new friends warred and maimed
but every dying soldier knew
it was Christmas time at home.
Michael J. Whelan
Published in Tallaght ECHO newspaper (Christmas Supplement) 18 December 2014
Later published in Rules of Engagement by Michael J. Whelan (Doire Press, 2019)
Artwork: Michael J. Whelan
What a moving poem Michael.
Thanks Fiona for all the support and for the comment on the poem and the special share!
Very emotional after reading this. Always the true sign of an excellent poem!
Heather, thanks for all the support and for sharing the poem, glad you like it!
What a wonderful blog you have here and some amazing poetry.
Thank you poetreecreations!
Reblogged this on helenjnoble.
Thanks for re-blogging The Truce Helen…happy Christmas to and your family, I hope we get the opportunity to meet next too!
Wishing you a peaceful time with your family, Michael.
Great Michael that you remember that brief respite in one small corner of the Western Front during Christmas 1914. As an Irishman whose father enlisted in October 1915, to be assigned as a young 2nd Lieutenant on the front to a unit that had lost their OC and circa a dozen officers and many more men in the opening day(s) of the Somme, I have walked “In Flanders Fields” where countless cemeteries remind us of the massive and mindless slaughter of the so called “Great War.” Shameful that more than a century later, Putin’s war in Ukraine involves not just trench warfare, but heinous crimes against the entire civilian population.
Tks for your cimment, have been to that landscape many times myself. Respect to your father.