Roger G McDonald: ‘Omaha Beach’
Omaha Beach
Erect in ranks, they stand as they’d have stood—
Upright, attentive, disciplined—to hear
Their fatal orders for our fateful good.
Today, sun soothes them, placid, soft, sincere.
Mere shadows of the conflict—blood and fear—
Are left, and just a zephyr stirs the wood.
Their alabaster angles trick the eye.
Symmetric silence muffles history’s shells.
They’ve shed old rules. New edicts can’t apply
To statelessness where stateliness now dwells
In burial, and each inscription spells
Its code of separation to the sky.
These legions lost. Not all were heroes yet
Their comradeship in consecrated ground
Could not contain my sorrow or regret
That this would be the last place they are found
And no further. We file past, and the sound
Of grief’s hush pierces like a bayonet.
Roger G McDonald
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins