George

He had requested a private funeral but Brown and the Ministry of Defence took over and produced a theatrical event which minor royals attended. Uniformed soldiers brought his Union Flag draped coffin into Wells Cathedral and took him out again. The Last Post and Taps were played by military bandsmen and the hearse departed to the strains of Elgar’s Nimrod. Shame on the warmongers and on those beating the war drums.

Harry Patch said ‘ War is organised murder and nothing else’. Most of his life was spent working as a plumber.

This is a poem from the Morning Star by Andy Croft.

The Last Act of Harry Patch
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Edited by John Rety

“The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten.”
- Gordon Brown

“We go to gain a little patch of ground/That hath in it no profit but the name.”
- Hamlet

“War is organised murder and nothing else.”
- Harry Patch

His murder was arranged at Ypres
With half a million other men,
But now he’s dead, the simpering vipers

Come crawling out from Number 10
To bury him with loud laudation

And hymns to reconciliation -
The poisonous, forked-tongued response
Of those who tried to kill him once,
Who justify each round of killing

From Langemarck to Afghanistan,
Then shed a tear for one old man.

It’s hard to say which is more chilling.
These snakes are deaf to what he said.
There’s nothing else. And now he’s dead.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Andy Croft writes a monthly poetry column in the Morning Star and has published seven books of poetry.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/culture/well-versed/The-Last-Act-of-Harry-Patch