War Under Foreign Skies- An Anzac Poem

• Sarah Hannan, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2017

Dear Nurse,
Do you remember?
The days that you spent mending grazed arms,
Now they come only with broken bones and shattered souls.
Do you remember?
The time they spent playing in open fields, the children how they laughed at their fathers,
Do you watch now as they desperately throw bombs like cricket balls and swing their rifles like bats?
Do you remember?
The saddened eyes that wept over spilt milk, do you now see,
Only the eyes that are stained scarlet?
Dear Nurse,
You are mother birds that nestle in trees of thorns,
You protect your chicks without thought,
Heal with only soft wings,
And die holding your children close.
You are she whose light shuns the dark.