HERE is a poem my husband Bernie wrote some years ago. I thought it might be suitable as we approach Remembrance Day.

"Over the top boys! over the top!" it seemed the only order we ever got.

Through the smoke, the fear, the blood and the noise, those that came back were men, they’d gone out as boys.

I can't understand, I just never can, the indescribable things that man does to man. Time after time we see nation fight nation, doesn’t anyone realise we are all Gods creation.

The Tommies, all mates, Jock, Taff and Paddy, all someone’s son, brother, husband, daddy.

There’s no greater gift that a man can give, than to lose his life so that someone can live.

Brave men in tears as the battle abates, that heartbreaking duty, burying your mates.

How did this madness reach such a pitch? when you’re fighting for life in a water filled ditch.

If the leaders of nations had to do it alone, millions of brave souls would never have left home.

So bear this in mind as you walk around free, those we lost in the air, those that rest in the sea, when once a year, we remember with sorrow, all of those loved ones who never saw their tomorrow.

At the end of the battle, when the Role’s read aloud, men, women and children, stand up, and weep in the crowd.

And in quite moments, just say this again, At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

Moira Dalton, New Ferry