Preston Park This Morning
This morning, the football cancelled,
We wandered through the preparations
For the VE/VJ Commemorations.
Still five, Christy tried on the heavy helmet
Of a GI, from a jeep that had overturned
In the Battle of the Bulge.
We investigated a mock-up machine-gun nest
With two real Vickers ungainsayable
In their weight and precision engineering,
Their 500 rounds a minute
And 4000 yards range,
Whose sighting and raking fire
Could kill men the gunner couldn't even see.
Should our boys be allowed to see these things?
And the blazered and bellied British Legionaires
Preparing, with their banners vertical
And chests beribboned, to parade?
They did our dirty business
And obviously enjoyed the discipline of doing so.
In another corner of the park
The pipers rehearse - men who love music
And seem to have no knowledge of wars
Though the keening of their pipes would scare
The bravest of warriors.
The boys play and chase each other.
We get ourselves home,
Leave the commemoration
To the British Legion.