Lussan Not Forgotten?
I thought of a gravestone from a century ago,
One once proudly tended and dressed with loving words
Which had been scabbed by time and yellow lichen,
Clung to by engulfing grasses,
Splashed by the droppings of ignorant birds
And shackled by the thorny stems of wicked nettles,
Like the Somme’s barbed wire:
A burial and life forgotten, a soldier smitten,
Downtrodden, well hidden, not remembered, immemorial…
The Lussan infantryman
Stands ever attentively,
Lichen clutching at helmet,
Blotching shoulders and head:
His ever invasive wreath…
The Lussan military man
Peers ever intensively,
Tree branches now at helmet,
Shading shoulders with dread
And ever pervasive death…
Pete Ray
It seems that the World War 1 memorial at Lussan, France has become somewhat shaded by encroaching tree branches and plagued by lichen since I saw it last, maybe six years ago…
I hoped that it would not become forgotten like so many untended memorials suffering in graveyards today…
The personal memorials below are some of those displayed in Lussan:
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