Benllech War Memorial Poem

by Alix Warren
(Bull Bay, Amlwch)

As you continue around the coastal road, the silver sea flashes to your left, Puffin Island floats beyond the Penmon lighthouse and the Great Orme frames the horizon.

Entering the holiday town of Benllech you might drive right past the memorial unless you need some petrol, for standing surrounded by a garage forecourt is the tall stone monument.

The names of the men who fought and died in the First World War are fading into the grey stone and are difficult to read, and like most of the other memorials on Anglesey, the heroes of the Second World War have been added around the base on granite.

SONNET

In Benllech where the beach curves long and wide
And campers pitch on Hewitts falling fields,
Objectors rail against the turning of the tide,
And councillors huddle bent in shifty deals.

Here stands a garage on the crossroad square
And beside the petrol pumps, a granite stone
Faintly whispering names of those who dared
To face the enemy, and died alone.

In bone-cold seas or wired no-man's land
They died, yet on this fence that keeps you from the plaque,
An air line for the motorists hangs, and
And MOTs are given round the back.
How many times have I driven past this place;
And given no thought of your dying face?


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