A Collection of Scattered Poems

A Letter Home


A Letter Home

A LETTER HOME

She looked so sad and wistful
Her face was deathly pale
As she opened up her letterbox
To collect the morning mail.

She caught her breath and trembled
Her emotions agonised
For the hand that wrote one letter
Had a style she recognised.

With tender care she opened it
But her heart could feel no joy
It was a letter from her loved one
It was from her darling boy.

Tears fell on the letter
And wet each word she read
She had been informed just days ago
Her soldier boy was dead.

"I try to write you often Mum,
But it's mostly all in vain.
Each time I start a letter
The fighting starts again."

"I hope that you are feeling well
And the family is okay
My thoughts are always with you
And there's so much I want to say."

"You know how much I love you
For you mean the world to me
And when I can come back home to you
How happy I will be."

"Tell Julie that I'll write again
The first chance that I get
You know we plan to marry
I fell in love the day we met."

"And if we have a daughter
We've decided what we'll do
Her name has been selected
We're going to name her after you."

"I miss my sister, Linda
And I miss my dear old dad
I miss my old dog, Marty
I miss you all so bad."

"A friend of mine was wounded
And I'll admit today I cried
For the sergeant has informed us
That friend of mine has died."

"Do you remember Jimmy Dawson?
Yes, of course, I'm sure you can
Well, he's fighting here beside us
And he's now a family man."

"He has a son and daughter,
And mum, he's really thrilled
He shows me all their photos
I pray so hard he won't be killed."

"It makes one stop and realise
Midst all this death and strife
How precious is this wondrous thing
This treasure we call life."

"And of all that life has given me
You rank at number one
And I pray that I have always been
A tender, loving son."

"I have one very special wish
That when we've won this war
I can prove how much I love you
I want to prove it more and more."

"It's strange that now I'm far away
There's things I want to see
They were things I took for granted
Now, they mean so much to me."

"I miss our dear old Tom cat
And his cheeky, greying face
I have so many memories
That nothing can replace."

"I remember summer evenings
When we'd sit out on the lawn
And we'd chat about so many things
'Til tiredness made us yawn."

"And I miss our Sunday dinner
And the laughs we used to share
Soon you'll see me at the table
And not my empty chair."

These memories are so precious
And never hard to find
For they glow like rays of sunshine
In the canyons of my mind

"I just can't wait to walk again
The streets of our home town
There's so many things I want to do
I've written them all down."

"I want to stroll beside the river
With its waters clear and cool
And I have the strangest yearning
For the sight of my old school."

"I long to see the fields of home
Their beauty so serene
For in this hell we're fighting in
There's not a patch of green."

"There's mud and slush and craters
And blood stains all around
This man-made war of horror
Has defiled each inch of ground."

"Some words I spoke the other night
Created quite a fuss
I said that those we're fighting
Are humans just like us."

"I saw a man get killed today
He was one of their's, that's true
But still I can't help thinking
He had a mother too."

"We are all obeying orders
But for peace we deeply yearn
Why must we go on killing?
Will our countries never learn?"

"If our leaders would negotiate
To bring peace again somehow
They could stop this senseless killing
They could stop this bloodshed now."

"Our soldiers have fought valiantly
I'll sing their praise out loud
And fighting here beside them
Oh Mum, I feel so proud."

"I've always loved our dear old flag
But now I love it more
It's a symbol to all nations
Of the things that we stand for."

"It's a symbol of our freedom
And the life we choose to live
And to keep it proudly flying
I'll give all I have to give"

"The fighting's started up again
So I'll close this letter now
But it shouldn't be much longer
before I'm with you anyhow."

"Soon I'll be back home to see
The loved ones that I miss
And I carefully seal this letter
With a tender, loving kiss."

Her thoughts flew to another day
That seemed not long ago
To a day when she had gave him birth
Then proudly watched him grow.

He had always been so thoughtful
So gentle and so mild
She loved him oh, so dearly
He was such a loving child.

The years passed much too quickly
And his manhood had arrived
But the years had never changed him
His gentle nature had survived.

She pressed the letter to her heart
For in her heart he would remain
Through the words within that letter
Her boy was with her once again.

She looked up to the heavens
And she prayed to God above
"Please give my boy your blessing
Please give my boy your love."

"Please comfort sons and daughters
Who have lost their life today
And teach the ones responsible
That war is not the way."

"Our children sacrifice their life
To bring peace to us once more
They've been stolen from their families
By this horror we call war."

Then she murmured, oh so softly
"Please God, the power is thine
Please comfort all the mothers
With broken hearts like mine."

K.D. Abbott © 2007


QUOTES:
War may sometimes be a necessary evil.
But no matter how necessary,
it is always an evil, never a good.
We will not learn how to live together in peace
by killing each other's children.
Jimmy Carter

We have to face the fact that either all of us
are going to die together or we are going to
learn to live together.
And if we are going to learn to live together
we have to talk.
Eleanor Roosevelt



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