Ave Atque Vale

War poem in memory of our servicemen killed in World War II

AVE ATQUE VALE

Hail to the slain, to young lives felled!
By bullet, by bomb in war long past
In eyes that loved them tears have welled
The grief runs raw and binds hearts fast.
How can we tell what dreams they shed?
To pay the price of man's sheer hate
As side by side lads groaned and bled
And saved this land from a Nazi fate.
From death's dark shade we see them rise
Point to the light, life's hard earned goal
While we smile on at star flecked skies
And sing farewell to a poor maimed soul.