Russ Clarke: Chill Winds

Let's start with an old published one....it should in theory be good.

I stand stock still, and stare

At endless fields of white marble

And move throughout the pristine avenues

Beauty paired with sadness hit me like a blow.

A cat strolls amongst the headstones

Oblivious of the significance

Of the place it calls home

Pauses to stare at falling cherry blossom

Like souls, dancing with the wind

The same chill wind, that blows through the valley

Down from pristine French mountains

Causes the tourists to wrap warmer

While paying simple respects.

Slowly I bend, to replace

One of three stones, fallen from a Jewish grave

Whilst I don't know what it means

I know it should be there

The very least I can do for this man

So long gone, yet forgotten not, never

Thanks to this one stone, one tooth

In the grinning maw of war

What these men I am sure would give

To feel this chill wind again

Is more than we can understand

The statues in the aisles

Smile so serenely

Give new beauty

In a place rife with death.

It's based upon a WW2 cemetery I went to in northern France, probably the most beautiful one I've ever seen.

Russ Clarke