ANZAC Day 2020, by Donna Fitzgerald

In the pre dawn I set out tea-light candles on my front lawn                           

Inside some large and small jars, 19 years I’d collected them so far

Enough to form the shape of a great big A

Then through a speaker played in Last Street the Last Post

Using a mic I choked out the last verse of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’

Tears commando crawling down my cheek to my throat

ANZAC day 2020 was a solemn joke in cold company with the soldier ghosts

I could only see one other flame flickering up the street

And across in the shadows Vicki’s smoky silhouette watching me

As I honoured my new sacred ritual I was feeling part of that bigger wheel

Then later in the afternoon I went on a loan march to visit our towns Cenotaph

This human observation struck me to be in common

As I watched 3 men busily mowing, their houses in a row

And one woman directly across the road

Spied on my return journey many more working hard in loved front yards

Losing count by the time I arrived home

So concluded on the Aussie psyche in battle with coronavirus

When told we’re not allowed to officially gather to acknowledge Gallant Service

Then most of us will perform our own private acts of Solid Duty

I wonder,   what did you do?

-

D-L Fitzgerald