The Sole Survivor Poem by Francis Duggan

He hasn't known much laughter in his eleven years
And he is often hungry and he's often been in tears
His family taken from him by a recent bombing raid
And they were the poor innocents who for the sins of others paid.

His mum and dad and three older sisters he never more will see
And he's the sole survivor of what was a family
All those near and dear taken from him by a stray bomb from the sky
And what sort of a future is for a war orphan boy? .

He was the sole survivor where his closest of kin died
When their old home by a stray bomb from the night sky was destroyed
But his right leg below the knee a surgeon had to amputate
And don't say he's been lucky that his could have been a worse fate.

He lives in a war orphanage with war orphans girls and boys
And every night the war planes keep on passing in the skies
And every night more innocents for the crimes of others pay
And the numbers of the war displaced keep on growing every day.