Over

I heard that peace had met its price at last
A bell once banned now tolled me so to say
Through the sound of grinding teeth decayed
A distant cheer was raised six miles away
That broke a mustered silence come to pass
Some things are best forever blamed
When peace no longer has a frame

They say it's over

I saw the dust unsettled far from homes
Retreating tracks, their flags now waving in
Some distant fields of vision grown so thin
From war now won or lost – what now begins
Lies scattered to the world like all these stones

They say it's over

I spoke once shouting, coughed, it's hand to friends
Made mirror nervous as their eyes like glass
Reflected shard – like sounds of bombs and blasts
And blinks – voices raised again and fast
A past unburied had to wait again, again, again

I smelt the fear of years to come before
Some passive judge of time and history
Will talk of lessons learnt for all to see
Through holes in walls we made to keep the peace
Now weakly redefined as the lack of war