Black Book of Remembrance

Let the mothers and grandmothers

compile a list of the dead and missing soldiers.

Let the children remind us

of the fathers who never came home.

Let the wives tell of the long, dark nights alone.

Let the sisters recount the women assaulted and dead.

Let us compile the long lists of grief

from both sides.

Let us combine them into an all-too large volume.

It will be a black book of remembrance.

It should starkly remind us

of the enormous costs of past wars.

It can serve as a cautionary warning

to avoid future wars,

with their too many dead

and missing,

and far too much grief.

Alan Whitehorn

December 23, 2020 –January 25, 2021

Alan Whitehorn is an Armenian-Canadian poet and a professor emeritus of political science.