THE FUTURE PAST

My Grandparent’s Lives
Reached back
To the last decades
Of the nineteenth century.

My Parents were born
On the eve of WWI.
Both my Grandfathers
Fought in the trenches.

My Father
Fought behind the lines in ‘39
My Mother
Nursed the wounded in WWII.

The World Wars
That shadowed
Them
Darkened my childhood too.

We are People of the West.
Conquerors of the World:
Practiced in never ending
Wars of Subjection.

As the World awaits WWIII
My two Grandchildren
Have been born into
This Warrior tribe.

But the Subject Peoples
Are at last Arisen
To follow their Path of Truth
Into the Future.

The long line of
Their Ancestors
And Descendants
Yet to come

Will be their Becoming.
Of my People
There will be an Ending.
Its long line

Can only shuffle back
Into the Past.
My Children and Theirs to find
Some Accommodation there.