Father’s Strong

by Jessica O’Dwyer

Father’s gone off to war today,

I wait at the window

For him to come home,

Mother worries for him all the time,

But Father’s strong,

So he’ll be fine.

 

It’s been a week, still no word,

No letters, no news, no carrier bird,

Mother says he won’t come home,

But Father’s strong, 

So he’ll be fine.

 

We got a letter in the post,

I take it to Mother,

She reads the letter and starts to cry

But Father’s strong, 

He has to be fine!

 

After a month no more news had come,

But the letter that tore my world apart,

The letter that shattered and broke my heart,

I think to myself for the first time

Maybe Father

Won’t be fine.

Written by Jessica O’Dwyer as part of Poetry as Commemoration workshops led by Lucinda Jacob in St. Matthew’s National School, Sandymount in May 2022.