War

• Alana Heath, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2009

Just out of town, near the old shed,
There lived a soldier, with a gun of lead.
He lived in a cottage, next to the creek,
Where his doors creak, and his roofs leak.

He is a veteran of the war, he wishes the memories were gone,
He can’t shake those memories of that war, those deaths, that dawn.
People think of him as a warrior, a celebrity, a hero,
But he thinks of himself as a poor, friendless, unhappy dero.

The sun sets, the moon rises.
He thinks of the war, his mate, and the so-called ‘prizes’.
He had known it was wrong, to leave his mate,
But if he didn’t, the boat would have left, he would have been late.

It worries him to this day,
What happened to his mate, during that war in mid May?
He goes to the services every year,
And drops poppies from the pier.