Student Mica Isaacs has written a poem that gives a rather different perspective on World War One remembrance. The photograph is of his great great grandfather Yakov Osovsky, pictured first on the right, and his family in Russia. It was taken after WW1 ended in around 1927. Yakov went to a labour camp (later referred to as a gulag) for three years for refusing to fight in the war. He was arrested when his wife was giving birth to his first daughter. He was bringing a bouquet of flowers and was arrested on the steps of the hospital. Also in the photo are, left to right, Yakov’s brother Misha, Yakov’s wife Perla, and his daughters Ruth (Mica’s great grandmother), Shoshana and Esther.
Every year, they don red flowers
Hold them to their chests and weep
And ask me to weep as well
It’s what you’re meant to do
But I will not celebrate
I will not celebrate the men who died
Young men, forced to abandon their homes and their mothers
Victims that we call Heroes
Because they fought valiantly for their Country
I will not celebrate the men who returned alive
The men who killed so that they could return alive
The innocent men, turned into murderers
Or the murderers who chomped at the bit
When the men at the top had a playground dispute
I will not celebrate this Country
That I must be loyal to or I’m a traitor
That I was born here
And it thinks that warrants my undying loyalty
That I should be ready to die for it
When it would not die for me
I will not celebrate those YouTube ads
The ones that tell me to join the army, or the navy, or the air force
That say they would let me save lives
When we both know why lives are at stake
And which lives they’ll care to save
So when you look down and see those bloodstains
The red ones you hold to your chest
That you love so dear
You weep, and ask me to weep as well
It’s what you’re meant to do
But I will not celebrate.