Bernard Selzer 1917-1943

He has been dead in the African earth

my lifetime. I am old enough to be

his grandfather. He used to shadow me,

sometimes like a conscience. Was I the man

he had been? I know him from photographs

and anecdotes.  He is a stranger, young

and silent, smiling at my mother.

Death devastated both their lives: was painful,

pointless, undignified, whoever

he was, has become – Plot A, Grave 5,

Ibadan Military Cemetery.

All those indistinguishable bones -

Muslims, privates, fathers!