An aproned mother bent and grey
Her hopes once bright now torn away
Holds bitter paper stained with tears
Confirming deepest, darkest fears
The child once held, so loved in play
Harsh metal’s edge, has cleaved away
By candle’s light as darkness creeps
In silvered frame her treasure keeps

A child so full will mind reveal
Of lust for life and endless zeal
As bravely marching, sword in hand
Imagined horde at his command
He rights the wrongs that plague the day
Where nought but fantasy holds sway
Then every robber baron dead
His medals earned, he seeks his bed 

But thence the child becomes the man
And sees each flaw in life’s great plan
No good or evil clear defined
Brings constant challenge to his mind
Each allied nation sore oppressed
Makes conscience ache and find no rest
So backed by childhood vision strong
He fills his place amidst the throng

Now Blight spreads fast across the seas
And borders shrink from dark disease
As just men from each corner found
Defy the foe on common ground
But failing each they take the blows
And evil onward ever flows
This gauntlet flung by fist of stone
That dares to task our land, our throne

So on to glory moves the throng
Their hearts sustained by deed and song
With innocence their only guide
And moral ally by their side
They take to trench with heads kept low
No targets for the watching foe
Both courage strong and actions grand
Shall cut the swathe through No Man’s Land

They leapt so swift to whistle’s blast
Through barbed wire, bullets, screaming fast
Where mortars burst with sickening tone
Destroying nerve and flesh and bone
Like wheat field bears tornado’s wrath
Their bodies strewn as scattered chaff
Death’s angel comes to stalk the field
And tear the souls from those who yield

Though glory sought, none shall be found
Within this hell, this battle’s ground
Where dwells stark pain and misery
As men to God and mothers plea
Our hero too falls with the rest
Keen shards of steel have pierced his chest
Soon quaking legs no strength to hold
Let body slip, so weak, so cold

The youthful face tints ashen grey
As life’s blood swells the deep brown clay
That fast now drinks from numbing limbs
Till stillness comes to blanket him
No fear now just the peace of calm
Descends to purge the war’s ill balm
From smiling mouth to azure skies
With one word “Mother” gently dies

No tears are left to meet the day
As face so loved dissolves away
The candle now it’s course has burned
And silver frame to draw returned
Once loving home with warmth of room
This house now echoes silent tomb
She rises stooped, and turns away
Her heart, her son both died this day