Spinister Of The Parish Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

With thousands of young men dying in World War One
many women never married remaining spinsters to the end.

Old and frail
Never kissed by a husband's lips
She dreams of what might have been
If war had not taken so many men
And the man she loved
Killed on Flanders battlefield.

Now all alone
In her crumpling old age
Grieving for children she never had
Wondering if her life has been a waste
Never to hear a grandchild laugh
And terrified of the coming dark.