Tommy

Another very poignant poem written by Teresa Harrison-Best, to commemorate our brave soldiers who fought in World War I  

She wrote this poem to give a face and personality to the Tommy mentioned in the verse. It was such a brutal war and so many lives were lost.

Tommy

They say he was a good man,
with nothing much to say.
A man who loved his family,
with his children he would play.

They say he was hard working
and never missed a day.
He laboured hard from dawn to dusk,
for very little pay.

They say he really liked a pint,
to wash down all the grime.
A swift one on his way back home,
before his dinnertime.

They say he was conscripted,
along with all his mates.
He’d fight for King and Country,
for a shilling a day, his rate.

They say he looked so handsome,
so dapper and so smart.
His wife and kids clung onto him,
before he had part.

They say he sang with all the rest
as they went off to the war.
He didn’t know what lay ahead,
the filth, the cold, the gore.

They say he was both brave and bold,
despite his lack of skill.
A Tommy of Lord Kitchener,
his blood did surely spill.

They say she mourned upon the news,
and clutched her bewildered brood.
Another widow upon that day,
an empty life ensued.

They say he’s now forgotten,
just cold within his grave.
Another poor killed Tommy,
who’s country was then saved.

They say it is too long ago,
there’s nothing now to see.
Just freedom and the right to speak
in a county that is free.

We say they’re not forgotten,
their memory will go on.
We owe it to the fallen,
those Tommy’s who have gone!

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Teresa H-B

Teresa lives in Worthing with her husband Stuart and their three rescue cats. She has recently retired from a long career in the Health and Social care sector, and has taken up Mosaics, Pilates and walking cricket. Her love of writing has always been prevalent throughout her life, and she wrote Catawall, fluent in feline following major surgery as a form of therapy. Her love of rhyme and rhythm feature in Catawall and her subsequent children’s books featuring Mackerel a piratical cat who captures the heart of everyone, even the ships mice and rats! ‘Mackerel and The Jolly Daisy’, ‘Mackerel and the Treasure Map’ and ‘Mackerel Saves the Day’. Her latest project Doggee Longlegs enters young fiction aimed at older children. Doggee is about young dog who starts life in a rescue shelter, overlooked on the homing day. Teresa is a great advocate of all animals and feels passionately about animal welfare, both at home and abroad.

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