GALLIPOLI

I sometimes wonder why

we celebrate Gallipoli

For it certainly is a monument

to mans’ unclear morality.

As a war it was a question.

The world was fighting Germans

yet we were fighting Turks

a thousand miles away.

To capture Constantinople

they told us at the time,

although from that day to this

we have never understood that why.

To capture Constantinople

they sent the fleet in first

A second great stupidity

For no other fleet was there,

and floating ships

have yet to win

against forts on land

and narrows that are mined.

So they sent in flesh and blood

gathered around the world

And having never told us why,

they gave no thought to how,

So they died, the thousands,

these young and courageous men.

Told to go by those who build careers

In sending young men to die

So when I celebrate Gallipoli

My sorrow is for those  

who only received the orders

and never asked the why

And if at that commemoration

politicians and generals are there

It is not to them that I salute

for it is they and their ambitions

their empty  confrontations,

who count of battles by numbers dead,

sending so many men to die,

as they did those years long ago.

I salute instead, and sorrow for

those ordinary men and women

for the reasons why they went

for their laughter and  their friendships

and for never asking why.