{"id":57308,"date":"2015-05-04T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=57308"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:24:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:24:42","slug":"anzac-day-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/05\/anzac-day-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"ANZAC Day 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

With thanks to Leunig.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy courage failed<\/em>
\nMy strength did not endure<\/em>
\nI broke down frightened and alone.<\/em>
\nI did not sacrifice my life,<\/em>
\nIt was taken from me<\/em>
\nAs there I lay half mad and trembling.<\/em>
\nPlease no bugle call, no flag, no volley<\/em>
\nI died\u00a0 human.\u201d –Leunig.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not there to read this poem by Leunig,
\nBut \u00a0\u00a0he speaks my mind.<\/p>\n

I was shot in war,
\nmy body \u00a0broken,
\nbloodied and dismembered.
\nI never made it back
\nand have no grave
\nto mark the spot.
\nMy family never found me
\nAnd I remain in Turkish dust.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0 hundred years on,
\nMy body, my blood,
\nmy dreams ,
\nwere not given for you
\nin remembrance\u00a0 of me.
\nThey have been expropriated
\nfor a national communion.<\/p>\n

Please don’t do this in my name.<\/p>\n

I want no muffled walk, dawn parades,
\nFawning Prime Ministers, and \u00a0Governors General.
\nI loathe last posts and know there will be
\nNo reveille.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want young children
\nImagining
\nthat\u00a0 being killed in action
\nIs any more glorious than being killed
\nin a car crash..<\/p>\n

I don’t want white crosses in school grounds
\nYouth ambassadors at Gallipoli
\nNational\u00a0 lies about sacrifice,
\nfreedom and democracy.<\/p>\n

Please don’t lie in peace about
\nWhat I felt in war.
\nPlease don’t\u00a0 use my shortened
\nLife for your political advantage.
\nPlease let me be what I was;
\nA\u00a0 man \u00a0of my time,
\nA man who knew no better,
\nA\u00a0 man killed for no purpose,
\nA man who died\u00a0hopeful
\nThat others
\nwill refuse to do the same.<\/p>\n

Please do that in my name.
\n_______________________________<\/p>\n

Prof. Kevin P Clements – Chair and Director, The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please let me be what I was;
\nA man of my time,
\nA man who knew no better,
\nA man killed for no purpose,
\nA man who died hopeful
\nThat others
\nwill refuse to do the same.<\/p>\n

Please do that in my name. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}