Monday, May 30, 2011

War Bride

War Bride
For Grandma Ena May McFarlane Massie Bridges

Fifty some years later, she still can awake
In cold sweat and shakes,
A scream strangled in her throat…
Don’t give your position away:

The Germans still bomb London,
Leaving Coventry for dead…
Rations, long lines and fear;
The Empire held in chains,
Destroyed.

But to be young in war,
The men all killed…or maimed…
Quick! Send the children to the countryside!
And the bombs drop.

Britain stands alone.
So weary.

Blood, sweat, toil, and tears…
And muffled shrieks in the night,
Bellies sometimes grumbling,
Mostly empty…
Never give up!

Bagpipes, must sound the bagpipes!
Nightmares, oh the nightmares…

A song plays and she weeps softly
About “tomorrow when the world is free.”

Over fifty years and an ocean,
A lifetime away,
She still can awake in tears.

© Copyright, Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw, 2000.
All rights reserved.

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