Spinister Of The Parish Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

With thousands of young men dying in World War One, many women never married remaining spinsters to the end.

Old and frail
Never kissed by husband's lips
Dreams of what might have been
If war had not taken so many men
And man, she loved
Killed on Flanders battlefield.

Now alone
In crumpling old age
Grieving for children she never had
Wondering if life has been a waste
Never hearing a grandchild laugh,
Terrified of the coming dark.