Nell lamented
The boy
Who was not yet a man
The day he was sent
To fight

Nathaniel was at the
Ripe age of
Seventeen


He had said goodbye
To his mother
His father
His brother
But he mostly said goodbye

To Nell

Nell was
Beautiful
And nice
With milky skin,
Ocean eyes,
And hair that curled around
The middle of
Her back

Nathaniel was
Young
Not yet a
Man
When he
Died in the war
At age eighteen

It was the 1930s
Nathaniel grew up
In a small town
Near Pittsburg

He was the perfect
Boy;
Blonde hair
Green eyes
Freckles across the bridge
Of his
Nose

A loving father
A kind mother
A brother who meant well,
Not even those closest
Could save him
From the war
Of the 1940s



The Second World War
More had
Died
More didn't return
Home

He had courted Nell
For a very short period,
Until he was drafted
On the warm
June day

He held her
Delicate hand
As he told her
The news

She wept
He wept
A pool of tears
He promised he’d come
Back

He never did

The battle field was bloody
Nathaniel watched
In stunned silence
As his friends
Were incinerated
In the flames
Of war

He thought of Nell
His sweet
Innocent
Nell

He held
His gun
Ready to shoot
At the charging German
Soldiers

He kissed
The tip
Of his well
Stocked weapon
And fired away
At the
Young German
Boy
Of a similar
Age

But from behind him
Came the
Deafening
Shot

Through his back
And through
His Heart



A cry of pain
A quick
Doubling over
And Nathaniel
Left

Nell grieved
Mourned
Wept
Cried
But even these
Verbs, would not
Bring him
Back

And so
Life went on

Nell
Married,
Carried,
And went along
With the
Flow


Inside
The nightstand
Nell kept
The sweet
Photograph
Of her

Long
Lost
Nathaniel