The Mother Now Grieves For Her Son Poem by Francis Duggan

He came home from war in a casket the war now supposed to be won
He was buried with full military honours but the mother now grieves for her son
But now he is just one of the war dead and all is so quiet where he lay
In the family grave by the hillside he can't hear the birds welcome the day.

On his last birthday he turned twenty his best years of him were ahead
He was buried with full military honours but honours can't bring joy to the dead
His mother is left to grieve for him she visits his grave every day
Not surprising she feels bitter and angry that her son should die in such a way.

She advised him not to join the army that it was not a good career choice
But he was one who loved adventure and he did not heed her advice
That her son died bravely in a war zone and his name is on the war memorial wall
To her is of little value and of no consolation at all.

Her son was a very brave young man and his character never in doubt
And she had worked hard to raise him on her own when his father on them had walked out
She did not raise him to be a war hero to die on a foreign roadside
As one of ten victims of a young suicide bomber who for to kill him committed suicide.

Her son's death still fresh in her memory he died only nine months ago
And each time she visits his grave site her tears for her loved one does flow
A woman in her mid to late forties with some gray in her shoulder length brown hair
Left to grieve for the only child she had life can be so very unfair.