Rain For Remembrance Poem by C Richard Miles

Remembrance day, and great grey humpy lumps
Of whale-grey, clay-grey, slate-grey clouds
Galumph across a gale-raked, rain-slaked sky
And drag me back some ninety years or more
To blood-stench mud-trench of that wretched war.

For though I may complain and rail today
That wind and driving rain are such a pain,
My self-perceived, so brief, discomfort still
Cannot compare to that of those who trudged
Through boot-hug mud that sapped the sappers' strength

And I am humbled, since my grumbling seems
So trivial compared to theirs, that had
More mortal challenges in such short lives:
Their bomb-fire quagmire horrifies us still,
A horror far beyond our modern thoughts.

My minor inconvenience today,
Dismayed by dreadful weather, rings so false.
I should be grateful for this hateful rain,
The climate's real reminder of those times,
A raw memorial to those brave boys.