July 1st: Canada Day

“July First, 1916” they climbed out of the earth like broken teeth from a shattered jaw, mud in their mouths, names stitched to uniforms like last prayers. a whistle cut the morning like a curse and the world, our world, dropped into silence— then screamed with iron. men ran into the gunfire like they believed in something, like the sky would open and love would pour down, not bullets. the Somme swallowed boys— not soldiers, boys— who kissed their mothers goodbye and wrote letters that never mad