The child looked up and she,
Gently stooping at the waist,
Stretched out loving hands,
That sweetly stroked his silky hair,
Polished the buttons of his uniform.
That opened the dreaded telegram,
And tended the memorial for men
Who were never found
Dead, in Passchendaele’s tainted ground.

At Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium, July 2013.