The Remembrance Of Private Ted

There’s a bottle of beer in the Waiho Forks bar,

From the rest on the shelf it stands out like a star.

For its shape is old fashioned and it just might be purple

And the label proclaims that its “Ballins Four X”

It was bought a long time ago by a young soldier brave;

On his final leave home, these are the instructions he gave.

“Don’t break it or sell it, just keep it in store,

And we’ll drink it when I come back home from the war.”

He was killed overseas on the Island of Crete

When they battled it out with the German elite.

There’s a headstone but nobody knows where he lies,

If he sleeps his last sleep ‘neath the sea or the skies

But the bottle still remains at the Country Hotel,

A memorial stands to a soldier who fell,

And travellers and locals take time out to think

Of the soldier who never came home for his drink.

And somehow a glow by the bottle is shed  

As poppies surround it and edge it with red,

For each Anzac Day there’s a new one to put there

And they lie like a wreath round that bottle of beer.

There are many stone cairns scattered over the land

But I wonder how many are polished by hand.

Though the cap is all rusty and outshines the chrome,

As it waits for the soldier who never came home.

Anonymous

We have been remembering the soldiers that fought for us in the World War 1 and 2. The main idea of this particular peom is, Not All Soldiers Return From The War.