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