Who was to know? <br />Who could have foretold <br />the normal lives <br />where tragedy enfolds. <br /> <br />Tom Roberts,19, Arklow, <br />Fighting in his way for Ireland <br />sings no more Songs of Erin <br />in Flanders Poppy Fields. <br /> <br />Willy Krzossa,20, learning history <br />in peaceful Wummensiede <br />would soon close his story <br />in lonely quiet Glencree. <br /> <br />Two young lives, unfulfilled. <br />Two Mothers, and two Sweethearts pray. <br />Two graves. Two wars. <br />Too high a price to pay. <br /> <br />Am I the link alone <br />That brings these two together <br />Like students, exchanged in times <br />And places each had never known <br /> <br />I stood at Willy’s gravestone in Glencree <br />I read Tom’s name in Flanders list of Dead <br />They are together in this poem, and <br />in the waste of lives two wars repeated <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Martin Swords <br />September 2010 <br /> <br /> <br />Written following a visit with four French English Language Students <br />to The German War Cemetery, Glencree, Co. Wicklow. <br /> <br />They didn’t understand.<br /><br />Martin Swords<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-soldiers-passing-in-one-thought/
