Boy Under The Rubble Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

(London blitz 1940)

House blown to pile of rubble
Neighbours frantic
Digging with hands
Hoping to find survivors.

Only the dead retrieved
Then from under rubble
Comes a faint voice.
Can death be cheated?

Air-raid warden kneels
Pulling aside bricks
And reaching down
He holds a child's hand.

Fingers squeeze his hand
The hole is widened
And a boy lifted free
Up into the sunlight.

Weeping the air-raid warden
Carries the boy safe
Down the street
Into a waiting ambulance.