William Richard Torvaney - Lights

Bright bulbs harshly glaring on the dancing throng
Drunken mortals shrieking in loud song,
Bloodshot eyes that stare in crude desire
Heaving, swaying bodies - blood that runs like fire.

Shrivelled souls that know no other god
Than Bacchus and the God of Food
Minds following foolishly their bodies' wants
The Devil cackling crudely here his power vaunts

And softly shining without this sinful door
Our Lady Moon spreads her broad beams o'er
The town and lights upon the market square
Revealing reverently there

A cross - a War Memorial - a list of names
Names that were once our boys happy in their games
Until they saw the Devil too and fought
That they might destroy him - as they vainly thought
And the words are written there

'Lest We Forget'

But we have forgotten and realise not yet
What these boys died for and why they die now again
Thirty years later in midst of war and pain
Morning comes, and the lights shine no more
On the spilt ash and the drink lying filthy on the dance floor
But on the cross in the market square still shines our eternal light
The Sun, striking strangely these three lonely words:

'Lest We Forget'

William Richard Torvaney

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lights-8/