Soldier In The Trenches Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

(World War One 1914-18)

Private Tommy Atkins, seventeen
Waits, rifle and bayonet fixed
For officer's whistle to blow
Ready to go over the top into no-man's land.
Ordered walk towards German trenches
Passing through barbwire over shell holes
Path swept with machine-gun fire.

Tommy must go or be shot by the officer
For cowardice in the field
Terrified thinks of home and parents
Knowing thousands died in last bayonet charge
Dying because Generals understand only slaughter
Not hearing mothers wailing cries
For precious sons lives snuffed out like candles.

Officer blows whistle
Fear grips Tommy praying to live
Up ladder he goes
Walks with mates towards German trenches
Hears rat-tat-tat of machine guns
Agonizing pain as bullets rip into him
Cries out with dying breath for his mother.