Poetry Break: “Let Me Tell You How I Died” – The Missing

You know, I was so excited to post this yesterday for 11/11, but sometimes things don’t go as they ought! I took a bit of a tumble off the kitchen counter (always use a step ladder, folks) so I spent yesterday dealing with a broken wrist instead! However, my thoughts still often turned toward the day itself and what it means to me. Not just the overwhelming debt I feel towards all veterans, but also the end of WWI. When my husband and I went to Belgium last year, we visited the Menin Gate. Seeing all those names struck me to my core. I couldn’t even say a word the whole time we were there. I could only look at all those names and think of what each one represented. A family shattered. Hearts broken. So many tears. And the questions. Because many times in WWI and a lot of other conflicts, loved ones don’t even have the closure of knowing what happened to their fallen soldier. So, as part of my ongoing poetry series, this one is for the missing. 

LET ME TELL YOU HOW I DIED

PART II – SEGMENT 4

The Missing

Try as you might, but you won’t find me

Because when I died, there was no one to see

I was just one soldier in this sea of death

Just one in a million, my dying breath

You’ll find my name on some lists here or there

“Missing in Action, but we’re not sure where”

You’ll search and you’ll search, you’ll scour the ground

But there wasn’t a trace of me left to be found

You’ll go to an office and bang on the door

You’ll sit in a waiting room, you’ll pace the floor

You’ll pour out your heart in a letter or two

But they can’t really tell you what you should do

No closure is hard, I can sure understand

But this was a war that consumed the whole land

Every battlefield was covered in bones

So many men from different places and homes

And I was just one that passed through those years

Your sobs count for few in an ocean of tears

Because I’m just one name on a huge roll call

One Unknown tomb will have to count for us all

To Be Continued…

To Read Part II segment 1, click here.

For Segment 2, click here.

Segment 3, here. 

And remember… always use a step ladder!