There is a pristine grave
for the unknown soldier,
a man of men, known and not known.
There to be revered and respected
for all the unidentified
and lost ones
swallowed in the mud
or obliterated in
the neglect and brutality
of war.
But I call for another grave:
a headstone for the
unknown woman,
a memorial for
a woman of women,
known and not known.
I call for a place of sorrow and resolution,
a place to remember with tears,
a place to acknowledge
the rapes and assaults,
the murders and brutalities
of war
that were as real as death
and as neglected as
a soldier whose body sank
in the mud of the Great War and
disappeared from all memory.
23/9/2015