The 10th Battalion

• Raquel Carrasco, Grade 6, St Bernard's Primary School
• Poetry
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

Men in khaki uniforms waded through the lapping waves,
Many had fallen injured or dead, a few shot right through the head
As the lucky ones reached the beach, shells began raining down
they scrambled for spades, to dig their new homes
As bullets brought death down among them
The water red, the sand not white, boys went to bed, never to see light
Within a few days and sleepless nights men plunged into sorrow
On crumpled paper, with broken pencils, they wrote their last goodbyes
wishing whole-heartedly they had more time on this earth they thought was at end
But nature decided in seeing their losses, no man should be forgotten
So up grew, watered by blood, red flowers we now call poppies
When they were seen the men then shouted, “But are we down-hearted?
Never!!!”
And so through the years people see poppies and say;
‘Lest We Forget’