Boy Under The Rubble Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

Boy under the rubble
(London blitz 1940)

House blown to rubble
Neighbours frantic
Digging with hands
Hoping to find survivors.

Only dead retrieved
Then, under the rubble
Comes a faint voice.
Can death be cheated?

Air-raid warden kneels
Pulling bricks aside
Reaching down
Holds a child's hand.

Fingers squeeze his hand
Hole widened
And a boy is lifted free
Up into sunlight.

Weeping air-raid warden
Carries the boy safe
Down the street
Into a waiting ambulance.