Home!

Home!             220 words

I waited for him to come home,

As he promised that he would.

He’d gone to fight in the war,

Not that it did anyone any good.

War ends but my man is still not home,

I wait and wait but there is no sign,

Then one day a telegram arrives,

I turn it over thinking; this can’t be mine.

But it is and this is what it said,

I’m sorry to have to inform you,

Your husband is missing in action,

Presumed dead.

No, I can’t have turned from wife to widow,

When he left, he promised to come back.

So I refuse to wear widow’s weeds,

And spend my life always dressed in black.

Oh God, help me, I don’t know what to do,

Three small bairns I have, the oldest only four,

And you tell me that their father is dead,

I don’t believe it, but it’s something I can’t ignore.

But then I ask myself how can this be?

I’ve got the telegram here in my hand,

It must be wrong; they surely can’t mean me,

What is written here, I don’t quite understand.

That cheeky swagger and boyish grin,

Are the things I remember as true.

But unless you have an identical twin,

That war weary man walking towards me,

Can only be…You!

End