When The Guns Fall Silent Poem by Phillip HendyDavies

The sunlight fades as the rainbow dims; and the day is done
He lies cold on wet barren earth; and we knew him only as someone's son
Killed by a snipers perfected hand, his rifle resting on a firm bag of sand
That bullet forever depriving him of seeing again his green and pleasant land
So many men have passed this way freed at last from the mud, the noise and the putrid smell
Young men from the towns, the rural countryside, the plough; Oh how we knew them all to well
A war to end all wars was the promise given, but never kept
A look of torment on a mothers face, as she silently wept
The guns fall silent now as the eleventh hour strikes the clock
Pale men appear from trenches, cold shaking and ashen with shock!
For them the war is over but not the nightmare of the Somme
For they will see the dead faces of their comrades for many years to come
Britain too has changed a great deal with the devastation that this war started
So many of her young men from all walks of life now sadly departed
Women now have to pick up the mantle to work in smoke polluted factories
Others will stay on the land ploughing furrows in straight line trajectories
And those babies now born without a father's hand and especially an orphaned son
Will themselves have to fight another devastating war in less than thirty years to come.