Sammy in year 9 has written this poem inspired by reflecting on D Day, (80 years anniversary this summer). I think you will agree that it is very powerful.
The Last Soldier
I jolted up, covering my head with my hands as I heard the sound.
Screams, bombs, the relentless rapid fire of guns.
The sounds of lives being lost, the sound of grieving mothers.
I steady myself, my back to the headboard of my bed.
I remember the sea, red with the bloodshed that had been caused.
I remember digging with my helmet for cover, as I heard the others around me praying to whatever god they believed in.
I remember hiding with my dying friend, the blood oozing from his chest and onto his shirt.
I remember what he told me.
I remember that with his last dying breath, he told me to care for his daughter.
We were all people, one way or another, all equals, all fighting for our lives.
We all had people to care for, duties unfinished, lives incomplete.
Lives that cut short by merciless war.
Sometimes I wonder just how these things happen.
How humans are turned into beasts.
How life goes crashing down onto those who are most innocent.
How we do this time and time again but we never learn.
They never learn how many people died or how many lost a father, a brother.
I was one of the lucky ones, yet I feel like the unluckiest man of them all.
80 years and I still remember the look on Sergeant’s face when he felt the bullet go through his head.
80 years and I still remember watching the life drain from my comrades’ eyes.
I get up, opening a small box and taking out the purple heart, watching it gleam.
If only I could turn back time.
If only I could tell them to stop.
If only I could save all those who fell.
The tears blurred in my eyes, that I refused to let fall.
Time was still ticking, but I was stuck in my old place.
By Sammy, year 9, Charter Academy