The Holy Roller
The haphazard way
The tank seems placed
Behind the hedge
Is actually protection
From the elements
This great grand old lady
Nicknamed The Holy Roller
Believed to be
The only tank
That survived D-Day
A tribute to
the Canadian war effort
To 700 men of the First Hussars regiment
A place where children now come
To climb and where scores of adults
Once those children, tell their children
Of the sacrifices made
When soldiers laboured to the shore
Through noxious fumes, from bombs
Gunfire and dead bodies
To save their comrades
And begin
The turning of the tide
To end the war.
©Sheilagh Lee September 16, 2015
I love the pause before the last line...i am glad the tank is shaded and that it is in some way still used and climbed upon...that is the only way perhaps to keep memories alive..to still live with them in some way...a beautiful poem Sheilagh
ReplyDeletethank you Jae Rose.
ReplyDeleteI think I rather appreciate the tank as a plaything than what it was manufactured for originally.
ReplyDeletethey've been playing on since they got it. It is a better way to remember
ReplyDeleteBut still we fight...
ReplyDeleteyes silly humans that we are
ReplyDelete