Robin Ford, 2015

 And is it so? That long ago I knew 
 How Christmas ran in that post-conflict space.
 Where demobbed soldiers made it to be true 
 That sacrifice leads to a better place.
 Or maybe I've imagined a connection
 Between my world of now; their world of then.
 A line drawn from the year of my conception
 Through world of boys to world of older men.
 A Christmas morning, and a hopeful Queen,
 A board-game gift to celebrate a climb,
 When men walked where no other men had been
 And oranges and nuts meant Christmas time.
 Sweet Cambridge carols, and a cup of tea,
 A shortbread biscuit, Mum and Dad. And me.