A Thing Of Beauty Poem by Lycia Harding

A thing of beauty on her wrist
is confiscated by a nurse
who looks for items soldiers missed
in places (and by means) much worse.

They brand her when she enters camp,
a thing of beauty on her wrist
replaced by Hitler's horrid stamp,
a stinging band below her fist.

They marched her mother through the mist
on to the bath that was her last,
a thing of beauty on HER wrist
gone too, she saw as Mama passed.

Now, she who bears the mark of war
lives free and wears her scar not with
remorse... it's more, at eighty-four,
a thing of beauty on her wrist...