Sun, rain, toe-numbing snow Days, months, years ebb and flow Again, again they line the cortege route. Silence, honour, lowers, heart-felt tears Flag-draped coffins slowly passing by- Husband, father, brother, lover and friend Dead within their prime, before their time Dead with youthful hope and expectation incomplete. Brave, steadfast, loyal comrades served- Their teenage dream, their selfless aspiration Far beyond a nation's call to arms. Heat, sand, a barren no-man's land Inch by inch before the point of no return They edged a fractious, disconnected world away From self-annihilation. Mary Hale