The Old Lady In Our Street Poem by Paul Warren

She cries at home when alone
When she thinks of how he had grown
Running wild in the Australian sun
Bronzed and athletic he'd become

When Australia said ‘to the last man and shilling'
One September day he enlisted so very willing
And he sailed that day to the Gallipoli shore
Running inland he was cut down by a machine gun's chore

Her husband died in endless grief
But she lived on getting no relief
And she received his ‘Deadman's Penny'
Since that day her tears have been many.

© Paul Warren Poetry

Note a Deadman's Penny was a bronze plaque sent to the relatives of a dead British or Commonwealth soldier in WW1.