My Old Man's War

It was little people
Crossing the channel;
Their Dunkirk spirit
Cut the flannel.

After the ersatz,
The bombs and rats,
Determination
Saved the nation.

But my old man
Fought in the rearguard
With the HLI
Never said why

They were the last,
The Fifty-first
Abandoned division,
In Hitler’s prison.

BH, 2020

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The final Ogden Nashery -  after Anthropolypse and Covid-UK, this… Harking back to the days of war. Of course we’ve never been without, but WW2 was ours, our finest hour and all that.

And this is the narrative that’s underscored the 2020 pandemic as if we learned nothing form 1918 but ‘ we can always try again, as if nothing has changed…’

So it was that my old man was one of the abandoned 51st. Losses of war… heroic… last ditch… Marched across Europe eating out of bins. And BawJaws and pals trot out the Dunkirk spirit as if it was all pluck and fuck all else.

Chin up, stiff upper lip and we come through. As if the damage goes away. Not for one millisecond…

The image is developed from a ballpoint sketch I did…