“Remembrance” Les Barker I want to share with each of you a dream I had one night : I dreamed I saw a monument, an arch of purest white, the purest, whitest arch atop the longest marble wall ; I saw as I drew closer that it bore no words at all.
I heard a sound behind me ; as I turned, I caught my breath : a hooded figure stood there, and I knew that it was Death. “Do you like my marble sculpture ? Let me tell you what it’s for ; it’s just one more memorial to those who die in war.”
“It’s just one more memorial, like those in every town : Once a year, you honour them ; you stand with heads bowed down in remembrance of the sacrifice of those who won’t come back from Passchendaele, Gallipolli, Afghanistan, Iraq…”
“You see,” he said, “this monument ; as yet, it bears no text : a monument remembering the war that’s coming next. You’ll come here, and you’ll read the names, and touch the ones you know ; if ever you remembered… you would never let them go.”
“Look beside the wall ; see, there’s a mason standing by to carve the names of sons and daughters gone away to die. If ever you remembered, he’d not carve ‘Lest We Forget’… if ever you remembered ; but you’ve not remembered yet.”
I woke and Death was gone ; and there, I vowed that very night that I would build the monument, the arch of purest white, the purest, whitest arch atop the longest marble wall : and strive for all my life to see it bears no names at all.