Remembrance Day 2018 – Aldergrove, B.C.
Jim Sclater of Aldergrove was inspired to pen the following verses after attending the 2018 Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Aldergrove Cenotaph.
The dead and the living gathered on the crisp bright morning
The dead - present only in the memories of the living
The living - with the dead hovering in their minds as images and emotions
Both usually kept just below the surface - allowed to be present for this solemn hour.
Yellow-green fluorescent jackets marked the city-soldiers among us: the police force
Armaments of their war slung openly over bulky shoulders or partly hidden in leather holsters
Carrying out their duty on this special day
Keeping the living safe from those for whom honour has no meaning
Carrying their own recent losses in their private thoughts and feelings.
The flyby - four small planes banking against a pale, fall-blue sky -
Reminders of the weapons marshalled on all sides of earth’s ongoing, violent upheavals
Mankind against mankind in decade after decade, century after century of armed and bloody conflict.
The dead and the living, together briefly on this solemn morning
Especially in the hearts and minds of those for whom the loss is still an open wound of war.
We remembered: Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, Diepe, D-Day, Korea, Afganistan……..
Sounds of battle echoing in our minds amid the images and emotions
All of it aroused by the drone of bagpipes and the tramp of marching feet
And the somber, silent salutes of those who served….
We stood and remembered the dead –
Once again among the living on this sacred day.
J. Sclater
Aldergrove, B.C.
November 11, 2018