The Fallen Soilder

• Katharine Bassett, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2008

The guns fall silent as the dead man falls
He lifts his fingers towards the skies
Curses the heaven for what has been done
With both sadness and radiance filling his eyes

He fell to his knees and flat on his face
He had fought his last fight through bitter fear
He had served his country but his time was now up
He wept in sorrow shedding tear after tear

Realising they were figures of the past:
His family, his friends his wife and his son
They urged him not to go off to war
But his views were strong and he finally won

Opening his eyes and wiping the tears
He stares at the sunset on the field where he lies
And the flowers that bear the colour of blood
Rain starts to fall like tears from the sky

With his last breath he screams out in pain
He wonders why he is still alive
With black blood dribbling from his nose and his chest
He has seen the worst before he dies

Now in peace and unbroken glory
He lies there dead, with blood on the floor
He has fought thought the hardest of times
Rest in peace, young soldier of war