For the Heart Catcher (2015)

34. Then and Now

                 

I hold a photograph, black and white

Up in front of me, and connect the lines

The structure of the buildings, the trees, and the pavement

The bridge and its railings, the shop window and canopy

And the scene in front of me, the one I'm living in

It's beautiful and lively, full of real colour and light

With tourists looking down at maps, taking their photographs

Children running around with cones of ice cream in their hands

Cars rolling by, going off to a tall glass building somewhere

Advertisements on the street show the next thing we should buy

But the photograph I hold in my hand, it tells a different story

Of a crippled economy and time when life was a horror movie

The buildings were mere shadows, lurking like dark prisons

Soldiers marched through streets, gripping their separate guns

They shoot when they see fit, when they see the enemy

How do we know he's an enemy? Well, he's from a different country

And their blood stains the pavement; the clouds roll black in the skies

The fires of bombs illuminate the cities like swarms of fireflies

And from this picture I hold, it all looks black and white

But you and I both know this happened in perfect colour

People lived and died through it, the horror and the bloodshed

The terror of concentration camps, and blackouts every night

Just because it's finished, and more than half a century has passed

Just because they rebuilt everything, and buried the dead bodies

Just because it's now black and white, a history subject at school

It does not mean it didn't happen to real people in real places

And while we divert our eyes and try to forget

Let's just take a minute to remember.

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I got the idea for this from a set of photographs. You know the photographs where someone is holding a black and white photograph from years and years ago, and they're standing at the same place where the photograph was taken and then hold it up against the actual place? I saw a set of photographs like that, except it was war-themed, so I decided I wanted to write about this.