Yes, we are a day late but here are two pieces (one by Maureen Weldon and the second by IS&T editor Charles Christian) with a relevance to Remembrance Day on 11th November. Not so well known these days is that November 11th is also St Martin's Day (or Martinmas) and that good weather on the 11th is know as a “St Martin's Summer”.


EL ALAMEIN  1942


They came one by one
El Alamein  –  the khaki inferno,
of smoke, oil and yellow tongues.
For every one that lived
two comrades died.
Now a million ghosts move silently
buried in the ever moving sand,
or talk in old men's  dreams.


• Maureen Weldon adds “I wrote this poem for my father who served with the British Army throughout the Second World War. My father did, thank God, return home after the War.”



HAIKU

St Martin's Summer
butterflies still flittering
over poppy wreaths


• As well as editing Ink Sweat & Tear, Charles Christian will be the editor of the British Haiku Society's 2008 members' anthology.