Somewhere Somehow - The Soldier Poem by Dann Thomas

Silence pervades the room
An edgy feeling of gloom
And then a ‘knock' cold, lonely & small
Certainly not wanting to be there at all.
She opens the door on a nervous officer
Discomfited, weighed down by a little letter.

She takes the letter, off his hands
And ever gracious, even says thanks.
She closes the door, and quietly weeps.
The letter remains unopened, stuck in grief.
Holding all her hopes, her fears, her solitude
Her many dreams crushed in someone's feud.

Stories of this bravery in every newspaper
The body came wrapped in the tri colour.
Her little son she had nursed and cuddled
Played, ran around, fought and scolded.
The gun salute shook her from her thoughts
Her dreams from now on, to remain as nought


Never a doubt, a thought, or a question
No fear, no thoughts of home, no religion,
He had led his men forward up the hill
They fought as one, to kill or be killed.
He runs and falls, firing as the bullets hit him
Still fighting for his friends, till death sinks in.


Now alone, two photographs on the wall
Two fighters, once ready for the call-
One the father, one the son. She weeps
for the child who waits for daddy to come,
for the wife eagerly waiting for her true love,
and the mother who hopes to meet her son,
somewhere somehow.