War - Ww1 - The Missing Soldier Poem by Paul Warren

He went over the top with his ANZAC battalion
Attacking the Hindenburg Line was the equation
But he disappeared in the mud no-man's land
Being hit in the stomach wasn't part of his plan

His mate Snowy pulled him into the shell hole
Bandaging the wound with his last words 'Bless your Soul'
Then Snowy went on and it was the last he was seen
With a German counter barrage blowing the battlefield clean

His mother and sisters wrote to the Victoria Barracks in Melbourne town
After six months they hadn't heard what had happened or gone down
'Pray tell us kind sir what do you know about George missing in the war
He has been in France but we haven't heard from him any more'

As with many others who disappeared on those Foreign Fields
There was not much information that any records would yield
Even Vera Deakin and the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau
Of the Australian Red Cross could not find any word of this Missing Hero

So the broken years went on and the family heard no more of him
With his sisters seeking out other soldiers in their own war hymn
And a lonely mother knew sorrow evermore for her lost son
Whilst others returned their own loving families and the war won.

© Paul Warren Poetry