Silence

On the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war
there are a lot of things happening
church towers with cascades of knitted poppies
lights lit in the moat of the Tower of London

but most happened
in the bit
that had least happening in it

the silence

It was hardly two minutes
That’s a couple of dozen breaths
but it is the only bit
that was big enough
to hold
our remembrance

And it hasn’t changed

In the length of years since the end of World War One
the world has changed
the way we do war
the priorities we have
the technology we use
the values we hold

but the silence hasn’t

it hasn’t lengthened
or shortened
it is still exactly the same

and unlike our words
or our compassion
or our memories
which are all limited
silence isn’t

not in its length
but in its depth

There is no safety net
it exposes our emotions
where there is nothing to protect them
it lays bare our hurts
our anger
our pain
our sadness
our loss
our impatience with conflict
holds a mirror to the worst of us
and the best

there is no word of comfort in silence
no sound of alarm
no warning notice

you just sink deep
in the wordless
inaction
of silence

and there find the battles of Ypres
and the stories of the Somme
the horror of Gallipoli
and the fear in Dresden
the destruction of Clydebank
and the danger of Omaha
the Gulf
Afghanistan
Lebanon
Somalia

and the stories of those left behind
the nurses and workers
the land army and the teachers
the families broken
as the warring goes on
the injured for life
and the life of injury

It takes two minutes
of doing nothing
to do all that

in doing nothing
we do everything
in silence