Ruthven Todd, ‘These are the Facts’

 These are the facts, observe them how you will:

Forget for a moment the medals and the glory,

The clean shape of the bomb, designed to kill,

And the proud headlines of the papers’ story.

 

Remember the walls of brick that forty years

Had nursed to make a neat though shabby home;

The impertinence of death, ignoring tears,

That smashed the house and left untouched the Dome.

 

Bodies in death are not magnificent or stately,

Bones are not elegant that blast has shattered;

This sorry, stained and crumpled rag was lately

A man whose like was made of little things that mattered;

 

Now he is just a nuisance, liable to stink,

A breeding-ground for flies, a test-tube for disease:

Bury him quickly and never pause to think

What is the future like to men like these?

 

People are more than places, more than pride;

A million photographs record the works of Wren;

A city remains a city on credit from the tide

That flows among its rocks, a sea of men.

 

Ruthven Todd, ‘These are the Facts’