Early Closing Poem by Norman Hadland

You were drafted
Windswept
Like the leaves
That autumn early closing day
Their colour matched
Your uniform
Whilst champions
Drove liberating tanks
You rode your bike
In unheroic Lancs.
With youthful haste
The unfamiliar sign was past.
The driver’s instant prayer.
A cry for Mom,
But soon the early closing
Calm returns
And later,
Stinted wartime news
“U.S. Soldier’s accidental death.”
They gave no name.
Even days have names:
“Remembrance”
“Early Closing”

Norman Hadland

 Norman Hadland 1992
“