Poem – A Soldier’s Suffering

I wish I was home

With my wife and son

I will return to Australia

When this war is won.

 

The things I have seen

No-one should ever see

There are so many times

I have wanted to flee.

 

I am struck with fear

My mind is stuck on repeat

Memories going around and around

I feel so incomplete.

 

Guns shooting in my head

Bombs going boom!

They never go away so

I automatically assume,

 

I’m mad, i’m worthless

Who could love me like this?

It’s like I am hovering

Over a dark abyss.

 

I am now home

But the pain is still here

I wish it would just vanish,

Just disappear.

 

I am constantly transported

Away to another time.

It is almost like going

To another lifetime.

 

However, the memories are so real,

So vividly real.

Time after time,

Like on a filmreel.

 

I cannot live like this

I cannot control my voice

And now it looks like

I only have one choice…

 

Ella Bibby 2/7/2017

Poem – The War is Coming

The war is coming closer

We are all going to be hit

They will come and bomb us

And destroy every last bit

 

I really don’t like this

I really don’t feel safe

I wish mum and I

Would move to some other place

 

And then they came

With their bombs and their planes

And I must admit,

They had a crack aim

 

I ran to the post office

To try and find mum

But when I saw the wreckage,

How fast did I run

 

I tried to find shelter,

Somewhere to stay

Then my brain went on a tangent,

I tried to keep the thoughts at bey

 

At least dad is alive,

Fragments in his hip,

He is on his way to Perth

On a hospital ship.

 

I need to see him

I need to get out.

I need to get away

From all of these shouts.

 

That was 50 years ago

When I had to flee

The home that I loved,

But now I am free.

 

Free from war, from bomb,

From destruction and loss

Even from pain

And feeling cross

 

No one should go through that,

Not by choice,

But now that it is through,

I have found my voice.

 

A voice to share,

A voice to educate,

Who knows,

Maybe this was my fate?

 

Ella Bibby 1/7/2017