A poem in tribute to the fallen at Somme

Sir, The Somme – 100th anniversary A Verse for Mary One hundred years ago this year, They went ‘over the top’, so far away, Men and boys, from near and far, Men from Scotland and from Wales, And some who lived to ‘tell the tale’ On July the first, at the crack of day, The cries, the shrieks, from trenches deep, And, a mother’s heart was broken too, When sons were left perished, upon the Somme, To never again, return back home. Now only names remembered on wood and stone, And on foreign fields their bones remain, Lives cut short, in prime of life, Never again to see a child or wife, Or rise each day upon island soil. Time does not from memories fade, Those dark, dark days of brutal war, And of mother’s suffering on island shores, While battle’s raged, and young men fell, Forever gone, forever lost, upon the Somme! In 1966, I saw her weep in silence, For three young sons who were taken from her, And Mary told me about her sorrows, Of how she also died that September day of 1916, How her life was left in terrible pains and grief, She said, No joy, no songs, no more happy new years, Will I now ever, ever see again, My days are dark, just like all the nights, War is terrible and I want to know How many mothers also died those dark days? In tribute to Mary, RIP, who lost three sons. Angus Campbell, Garrynamonie, South Uist.