This is the day we will forget

 It’s 11 o’clock on the 11th of the 11th
It is time for all to remain silent
For a minute or more
For the many who lost their heads
To amnesia to empire to history

Today is the day a decent person ignores the memory
Of the non-people who never lived
Stories of indiscriminate slaughter
Of Malayan and Kenyan villagers in forgotten wars
Are not the sources of self-righteous remembrance

No solace is sought for those whose commemoration
Would be an act of sedition
An instance of rebellion

Now is not the moment
To contemplate unsavoury truths
Or entertain extremist views, to point-score, to muck-rake

This is the day we bury those deaths
At 11 o’clock of the 11th month
Scots Guards will not go rogue
And innocent throats will not be gorged

There will be no recall of ISIS-style massacres
MADE IN THE UK
No recollection of manufactured famines
Torture, brutality, Bloody Sundays, 
British gulags or concentration camps

Now is not the time for Mau Mau
Because 1948 is not 1916
The Easter is falling; winter is rising

This the day to neglect the poppy fields of Afghanistan
Where the Help for Heroine programme
Opiates the local economy in the name of peace and freedom...
…and the liberation of women (sic)

Today is the day we listen to Elgar and comply
Lest we forget
To forgive the crimes committed
By the Great and the Good

The dead are honoured, but those they killed are not
The merchants of death have prospered
The Blair Witch Project dares to wear its poppy
Here lies Anthony like Margaret and Winston before him

Try not to wretch; contain your alienation
This is the day to hold your nose
And think of the fallen and the nation

The fabrication of propaganda is not on the agenda
The fabrication of propaganda is not on the agenda

This is not the moment to resurrect the memory
Of sexed-up excuses for outright murder
With impunity and arrogance
In the name of profit and power

Which way did The Belgrano go? No!

Now is not the time to ask

Now they’re all dead; lest we forget
This is the day the stories
Of other heroes are silenced

This is the day to belittle the bravery of those loathe
To kill and to die in the name of a flag
And a face on a bank note

This is the day to remember…

Or this is the day we will all forget