From a Village by the Sea
Who was he, the young soldier there?
He came from a village by the sea,
Who along with thousands other boys like him,
Had enlisted and came willingly.
.
They left their homelands with brave smiles
Overflowing with zeal.
But Death looked on with leering eyes;
He knew whose fates were sealed.
.
On the stark battlefields of France,
He thought of the cheery window light.
That had welcomed him home so often,
On cold, dark dreary nights.
.
He wondered when the same light
Would welcome him home again.
Could things ever be the way they were,
Or be free of bloodshed's taint?
.
Yet in the deep muddy trenches
Where many laid down their lives.
He faced each day with courage,
In that place of conflict rife.
.
As horror after horror came,
He taught himself to keep hope.
He dreamt of a homecoming someday;
His memories helped him cope.
.
Once he faced a German boy
In fear and ailing health.
He could not bring himself to fire
At a boy just like himself.
.
He closed his eyes and aimed elsewhere;
Did he send one more to his doom?
Back in the trench he peered out
At the land of twilight gloom.
.
Oh, he saw a comrade,
Wounded on no-man's-land.
Loath to see another die,
He ran out to lend a hand.
.
While the young soldier boy knelt,
The foe's bullet aimed at him.
Which hit its target straight and true;
Yet one more fed Death's whim.
.
As he lay dying under the stars,
He could not stop thinking of one.
She of wistful eyes and trusting heart
To whom grievous hurt was done.
.
The bloody chaos around him continued
As life ebbed out of the soldier boy.
He died in a place that knew only of destruction,
Completely devoid of joy.
.
The living marched home triumphant,
When war ended in victory.
But no one remembered the soldier boy
From a village by the sea.