Dear son I sit here safe and sound
and free from existential fears
With friends and family all round
but still my cheeks are wet with tears
For one who's absence I have found
does not diminish through the years
is buried in some foreign ground
with oh so many of his peers
You answered to the trumpet's sound
You looked so sure, you volunteers
So smart and brave as duty bound
you took your orders with three cheers
But life is short as canons pound
and modern warfare interferes
A generation's best cut down
as battle's glory disappears
My son I write these lines for you
remembering the life you gave
and pass them on to others who
you sacrificed yourself to save
And hope that they remember true
their debt to the forgotten brave
for you're an unknown soldier too
An unknown corpse in unmarked grave
Postscript 1939
Our racial memory is short
for having lost our fine young men
When only twenty years have passed
we're face to face to fight again
and free from existential fears
With friends and family all round
but still my cheeks are wet with tears
For one who's absence I have found
does not diminish through the years
is buried in some foreign ground
with oh so many of his peers
You answered to the trumpet's sound
You looked so sure, you volunteers
So smart and brave as duty bound
you took your orders with three cheers
But life is short as canons pound
and modern warfare interferes
A generation's best cut down
as battle's glory disappears
My son I write these lines for you
remembering the life you gave
and pass them on to others who
you sacrificed yourself to save
And hope that they remember true
their debt to the forgotten brave
for you're an unknown soldier too
An unknown corpse in unmarked grave
Postscript 1939
Our racial memory is short
for having lost our fine young men
When only twenty years have passed
we're face to face to fight again