Poetry corner

Almost 890,000 Tommies didn’t make it back home for tea in the First World War. An incredible and awful figure, which inspired Marion Fellows’ poignant poem. The 78-year-old, who lives in the Wye Valley, Herefordshire, with her husband Ken, says: “We’re fortunate that our family did not suffer casualties in either war.

“But my knowledge comes from listening to the tragic experiences of the elderly people I had the privilege of looking after.”

Home For Tea

Tommy won’t be home for tea, He’s far away across the sea. His old pal Barney’s by his side, They’re stood in a trench, not very wide.

They played at soldiers as young boys, The guns held then, they were but toys. But now the feeling of cold steel Tells Tommy that these guns are real.

Staring eyes look straight ahead, And Tommy knows that Barney’s dead. Up to their necks in blood and gore, The victims of a bloody war.

He wonders if the powers that be Will ever know the misery

That their blinkered missives cause As they send boys to fight their wars.

A sniper’s bullet finds its mark, A death cry echoes in the dark. A soldier falls down on one knee. Tommy won’t be home for tea…