War - Ww2 - In God's Garden Poem by Paul Warren

It was 1943 and the war was waging on
In Australia there was no victory song
The Japanese on our doorstep the young men volunteered
In my grand-parent's street the families for them feared
One late afternoon whilst my grandfather was in his garden
Hoeing away and growing vegetables for victory his margin

The sun was going down and the shadows were winning
There was no-one around except the birds who were singing
A misty white light appear in front of his eyes
It was a young man in uniform to his complete surprise
He recognised the face and there was grief in the sad smile
He'd come to say good-bye and to linger a while

My grandfather knew him as one of the young men
Who went to fight for Australia and for us to defend
He didn't say anything but looked to his home
And nodded with a sad smile and then he was gone
Standing with his shovel he thought what to do
When the word of the soldiers death finally came through.

He spoke to the father of the son lost
And what for the family was their great cost
To his dying day he didn't talk about it much
It was too perplexing for his conversation to touch
What he couldn't work out was why he had been chosen
By one who had died with this memory in his mind frozen.

© Paul Warren Poetry