The Promise Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

(Death on the Somme, World War One)

Alfred was cockney barrow boy
Bright and cheeky
Went to war at fifteen
Telling recruiting sergeant he was seventeen.
Promising weeping mother to return.

In France endured hell of battle
Plagued by lice in rat infested trenches
Walking ankle deep in mud
Trying to control surging terror
Determined to keep his promise.

Went over the top at the Somme
Bayonet charged German trenches
Fell wounded dying in shell crater
Drowned alone in the mud.

Telegram boy called on Alfred's mother
News her son would never return
Almost insane with grief, she cried out
"Only promise Alfred ever broke."