Kickin’ Around The Christmas Tree, 1914…
There was a curious, chilled excitement
About my Christmas Day in the front line of allied
Trenches, along with a cautious satisfaction
Of a delicate ceasefire and a lack of imminent threat.
Soon some soldiers slowly emerged
From the muck and the mire onto the stark,
Pitted and cratered wilderness of no man’s land,
In an entirely shocking and unexpected release
Of tension, relief and a temporary unofficial peace.
Someone inserted a remnant of a damaged tree into the earth
And adorned it with a hurriedly linked paper chain as a meagre decoration…
There was a curious, appalled amazement
About some exchanges of gifts and greetings, typified
By tobacco, tots of rum and the awkward verbal interaction
Between enemies feeling a mutual empathy as they met.
Soon I too gingerly emerged
With a leather football, its polish scuffed like bark
But the joy of kicking it, despite my sodden boots was grand,
Sprawling to make a fine save generated such a release
And I was enthralled by the kick-about, a bringer of peace.
We kicked around the Christmas tree in tears and with mirth
And despite the looming resumption of hostilities, I experienced a bizarre elation…
Pete Ray
18th December 2023…
Imagining Christmas Day in 1914.
One of my grandfathers was in the vicinity of where a truce happened and some football was played, whether as a match between enemies or perhaps by groups of comrades…
I have visited the field where football was allegedly played and juggled a football which had been left next to the memorial…
A strange feeling indeed…
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