thehighlanderspoems

The Following of the Pipes

On this cold winter night
A horror unfurls
As they leave their trenches
Under the Bagpipes skirl

It's Christmas Eve
In World War One
Over the top they leave
The killing has begun

Knee deep in mud
Barbed wire and bodies
The piper laments
Their bravery embodied

To march into battle
With their weapon of pipes
Whilst bullets and bombs
Leave the theatre in strife

Onward they march
Turning men into hero's
The battle of the Somme
Last centuries ground zero
 
What makes such a man
To enter a war
His weapon of music
That they follow him for

Amongst the men that fall
Others pick up their guns
When the piper falls
Their is no one

On this cold Christmas Day
The horrors have been unfurled
As one looks over the trenches
To a different world

But the very next day
In the distance you will hear
The sound of the Scottish Bagpipes
Leaving their enemy in fear

 

           In memory to all who fell at Christmas time, and especially to the pipers
who used music as their weapon, we will remember them, as all will be remembered

 

White Marble at Attention

It started with a field
Before the wars came
Now white marble stands at attention
This field would never be the same again

Rows of lost warriors
Soldiers of our modern day
Who bravely fought for our freedom
The ultimate they would pay

Below these white marble stones
Lie the kin of you and me
Who enlist to fight and serve
And die for their country

They fell in many conflicts
Scattered throughout our world
One day they laugh and cry
And tomorrow, they are never heard

We are never far away
To a lost one who has died
To fight our wars or others
Worldwide

  

Losses in War

Picture the scene
On muddied, bloodied fields
Way back in World War One
When neither side would yield

Thousands rise from their trenches
To gain a few hundred yards
As they fall in stench filled craters
Slaughtered souls in life discard

This killing goes on and on
Over the top they go
Shells pounding, bullets zipping
As their blood flows and flows

Four years these horrors raged
Forty five million maimed or fell
Not counting the lost civilians
Who died in this modern hell

Modern conflicts still run and rage
Hero's and villains still engage
Will there be a tomorrow, without these wars
Will the future look back, and wonder what for 

 

Blackhawk Dawn

In rugged mountains of beige
A mission has been set
To rid a faction of rebels
Where conflict will be met

Eradication
To return a country to good
Dispose of the unwanted
For the feud to conclude

Near the Helmand River valley
A major offensive is set
U.S. Marine push
Juniors and Vets

Its not even daylight
As I radio them in
Colleagues of three
Hereford's unique fighting men

In our covered position
The Taliban are sighted
Car bombings, slaughter
Rotor blades we invited

A distant sound
Of birds of war
Bringing Marines
Bullets, hard gore

From the valley rises
Western army brawn
In formation flight
Blackhawk Dawn