When the World Goes Quiet

by Gian Sardar

Though Belgium was neutral and forced into the war when Germany invaded, the war’s catalyst has reduced over the years and become simple in her mind, like something simmered on the stove too long: a little to do with an Austrian archduke who was shot point-blank when his motorcar took a wrong turn, landing him in the path of a young Serbian conspirator, and a lot to do with allegiances that sparked one to another to another like a long chain of dynamite, the entire world becoming bright with pain. Can you imagine, our collective fate rested on that one choice, Coletta has said. Right or left. From there, fighting not just in Europe, but Africa and the Middle East. Belgium, once forests and fields and blankets of bluebells, has since been blasted and cratered and veined with trenches, while the men who are lucky enough to survive are too often trapped in the cages of their minds, living an endless nightmare.

this is what intry to explain to my students when teaching WWI....