End of a Rat

He walked the length of the village street

With a board - ‘The End is Nigh!’

In a dirty army overcoat,

He looked like a nice old guy,

But kids would jeer as he drank his beer

From a bottle outside the pub,

In winter, fend off the snowballs

That they threw - aye, there’s the rub!

 

For he had served with the Desert Rats

When the Aussie’s held Tobruk,

Had gone out under a blazing sun

Where an egg on the sand would cook,

He’d taken three light German tanks

With his mates from the Aussie bush,

On a night patrol where they had to crawl

Then fight like the Sydney Push.

 

After the war, he’d met a girl

In Alexandria,

One of the W.A.A.C.’s that served out there,

Her name was Angela,

He followed her back to England where

She turned her badges in,

And married the girl in Leicestershire,

But never went home again.

 

They settled down in a village there

Though he yearned for sand and sun,

She said she’d never leave England while

Her life had time to run,

He found some work on a local farm

Though he often became depressed,

And thought of the beach at Bondi and

The wheat fields of the west.

 

They lived and loved for forty years

Though he felt quite beaten down,

The locals never accepted him

As a native of the town,

His wife took sick to her bed one day

And said, ‘the time has come,

You’d better go back to Australia now

That my life is nearly done.’

 

She died as the sun was coming up

On the bleak, flat Leicester plain,

He buried her there in a cemetery

With an Anglo-Saxon name,

He thought to leave but her spirit stirred

And he couldn’t leave her grave,

But went to the age-old Norman church,

Knelt in the nave, and prayed.

 

For years he studied the Bible there

Considering all he’d done,

The bones of the soldiers left out there

In the terrible Libyan sun,

The emptiness of his life took hold

And he walked with a weary sigh,

Placing a board around his neck

That said - ‘The End is Nigh!’

 

He walked with his head bowed down and low

And forgot to turn around,

They found him frozen, covered in snow

Just a mile outside the town,

A photograph of his wife was tucked

In the band of his old slouch hat,

And on his lapel, a medal cast

In the shape of a Desert Rat!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Emerald Seas]

Very well executed poem, David.

I am a huge advocate for veterans, especially the wounded, disabled, and disenfranchised that have served us at a severe cost to themselves and their families. We never know another's true burden or what has created their circumstances. They deserve our respect, understanding, and heartfelt gratitude.

Well done, my friend!

[Patricia B. Hepler]

His commitment as a soldier and husband was true. How very sad that he was alone at his death, except for his memories.
This work carries a powerful message-- Excellent write.
*pat

[Mark]

TO be compelled to abandon one form of happiness in the quest of another is almost always a lose/lose scenario, as it was for this poor sod. Is it, I wonder equally true that, as Hamlet said, "Better to bear those ills we know than fly to others we know not of", we must relish those joys we have, preferable to seeking a more novel version elsewhere?

[Marie]

Well the poor man--lost one home and never got to go to his other.

[David Scott]

I loved the look onto the life of just one mire unsung hero. Even a fictional character can remind us to honor those people and not assume to "know" the history of an person 's situation.
One your better stories for me and fitting for the holidays as well.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

David, you never disappoint with your poetry........excellent rhyme, meter, topic.......love this one.

[Lena M. P.]

Wow powerful David. Many of our "street people" are ex-vets that can't find they way in life once they come home. It is sad that your soldier couldn't find it even with the love of his life. Of course she didn't share either.