General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

TRUCE

Christmas Eve, 1914


They came on,
the young boys with their tins of black chocolate,
over the frosted front line.
We held our breath,
to keep them at bay...
'Steady, boys, let them come on...'
A bright moon shone;
as the darkness slipped away.
Not a word more was said,
and down the line the silence spread.
And then,
a voice,
was heard again:
Who goes there?
As,
men came to face men,
like no other time before,
or would ever be,
again.
We held our nerve.
But they held the ace cards:
the chocolate and the black cigarettes;
and the photographs
of sweethearts
with sweet regrets.
'Look, said a boy from our ranks,
'They're all coming on...'
And as sure as the midnight moon
they kept coming...
in ones and twos,
across the barbed night frost-
and it looked like all the world
had joined up as one...
as peace held out its hand.
And all was not
lost...


Jarvo 2019