A prime minister prepares for a memorial by John Alwine-Mosely

(After G.K. Chesterton)

They haggle to find a market price
the sirens are dusted down
talking shops drone on
and dead to come still laugh

And in streets where children played
fathers long lost still watch
while the living weigh out votes
to the march of drum and fife

When bankers make the rules
you and I are erased in ledgers
and the green and pleasant land
walled off from those that build

And we that stand to see that stone
will know how many died in hope
that we would never march again
as we lay flowers and weep their tears