Life and Death

[heslopian]

I sometimes think about the survivors of the Great War
who came home only to die that same week
after being hit by a bus, or mugged outside their local pub
by someone else who'd seen the Somme, and through chance
had lived to kill a fellow veteran. There must have been a few.

And what did their families think?
Could they say Tom was unlucky
when only he had reached the base
all his comrades died storming
that rainy day in No Man's Land?

This to me proves death is naught
but a silent card dealer
wearing his gaudy uniform
as the players shift their eyes
and try to grasp this game of chance.