Rhosneigr Clock Tower Remembers War Heroes

by Alix Warren
(Bull Bay, Amlwch)

This memorial stands in the very centre of Rhosneigr village. Four roads intersect here.

One takes you down to the sea and the curving beach, one leads over the common and past the lake fringed with bull-rushes.

Another one passes the row of fishermen's cottages now converted into artists studios and holiday homes, and bends its way to the station and the golf course.

If the sun is high in the morning sky, you could so easily believe you were in Portugal or Spain.

Beside the well kept monument with its list of service men and women, their addresses and the year they died, has been planted a tall spindly tree.

Both the memorial and the tree are surrounded by the ubiquitous paving setts much loved by town planners and gardeners.


CHANGES

Heavens! How it's changed
Your town beside the sea.
How the shops and summer visitors
Are not what they used to be.

There's a café serving internet
To surfers of the air.
And a shop for deep-sea divers
Full of thermal rubber wear.

If you want to buy fresh bread
You have to drive to Tesco
And peas come frozen in the bag,
And there's a cigarette embargo.

The horse and carts have ambled on
To the stable in the sky.
And the old tin baths are full of flowers
Antiques of days gone by.

Now cars are driven round the clock.
In a kaleidoscopic whirl.
And jet planes fly across the sky
In a supersonic swirl.

There are trendy little shops
With 'boutique' above the door.
I bet you never heard that word
Before you went to war.

Heavens! How it's changed
The world you left behind.
A hundred years of progress
A giant step for all mankind.

You can learn to kite and wind surf,
And ride a wake board too.
The only wake you'll recognise
Is the one they drank to you.

Your little house is up 'to let'
For holidays, en-suite.
There's the sound of trilling mobile phones
Ringing down the street.

Here's a thing you'll not believe
It's as crazy as it sounds,
But a house with beach and sea view
Was sold for a million pounds!

The beach hasn't changed much
The tide still ebbs and flows
But with every new building site,
The population grows.

Things have improved it must be said,
Such as health and education.
Your post traumatic stress
Would be cured with medication.

Each house boasts a toilet,
Inside, not down the yard
You don't need any cash in hand,
You just use a credit card.

You probably won't recognise
The clock tower in the road.
It was built in memory of you
So you would not grow old.


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