Ode to World War II Memorial at SPUQ

Abe V Rotor

Triad WW II Monument from beams of former chapel.

World War II ruins of main building, rebuilt for the High School Department

Xerxes’ aide a thousand times
whispered, “Remember the Greeks,”
to keep memory of Darius but –
revenge is all a coward seeks.

A thousand times, we cried in rage,
In hopelessness many had died,
“Remember the Japanese!”
and left it to time to subside.

Our cry died on marbled floors,
died in echoes and in the shade
of high rise buildings and halls,
that the new generation made.

You stand there frigid and mute,
cold as steel against the flame;
three beams of a chapel before,
now a triad devoid of fame.

Shh… hear the cries in the dungeon
the comfort women, the muffled moan;
the ashes left by countless souls,
bombed buildings against the moon.

Remember the tortuous Death March,
the saga of Corregidor;
the ghosts in concentration camps,
the nameless heroes on the shore.

Short is modern man’s memory
amidst malls and cars and good life,
TV and university.
Yes, The Good Life sans strife.

Where is faith in Providence abide,
goodness, lessons from childhood lie,
where once in the home and school?
Now the evil along may belie.

A new breed has risen – puzzled,
sitting on a fence in a throng –
the manna of capitalism,
and subsidy from the strong.

by design or chance of deceit,
gambler’s luck, a waste of prime,
but idleness knows no enemy,
and without the essence of time.

The essentials of history –
refresh memory before it’s gone;
look up hard at the memorial
to trace the roots of our freedom.

But it is easier to doze and sleep,
If nothing can be done with the past,
revolution has a story,
never, never the die is cast.

To tell as to why we are here;
Darwin knew not such a test;
why fallen victims too, survive,
once more live with the fittest?

“Remember the Greeks,” we may say,
or “Remember the Japanese,”
two things different in their way.
Look at the cold steel never at ease.~

Living with Nature, AVR