Final Words

(A song to honour all those we have lost).

Wherever they have fallen, Wherever we may find them now; Their fears and their words Linger here;
Still we shed our tears.
Letter to a loved one, Message to an unborn child, All that they were
Is written here.
————————————
“These final words are for you, dear mother;
As I lie here, broken and dying, Please know that I feel no pain, For I am empty of fear. Nothing now can hurt me, nothing.
For all I now feel
In this safe, wet, hollow in the ground
Is the muffled pounding of confused men’s boots Drowned by the screams of war;
No longer part of me,
Nor I a part of them.
My final gift,
Though now I weep to cause you sorrow This very last time,
Is to grant you some peace and comfort Knowing I have reached you.”
————————————-
Wherever they have fallen, Together we remember them; Their fears and their words Linger here;
Long may they survive.
Letter to a loved one, Lesson for an unborn child; All they may have been Ended here.

____________________________
These hundred years have hurried by rapidly, So rapidly,
All that they were, forever here,
For years,
And now, as we recall so many lives
Lost in war;
We wonder, has anything really changed? As we still shed our tears….

© Clive Harvey