Silence.
Nothing but deathly silence.
Only the pounding of my heart.
Each beat reverberated through me,
Causing my breath to come in rapid breaths.

And then all of hell broke loose.
The agonizing silence was broken by the sound of shrill screams
As I clawed myself from the trench.
Bullets flew past my head as my comrades fell down beside me.
In mere seconds they were dead.

I ran blindly forward.
Firing as fast as my trembling hands would allow.
Always running.
But not fast enough.
I was too slow.

And what of my wife?
My love, my life.
How would she react?
Would she cry in the night?
Would she give up and loose hope?

But she was stronger than me.
Stronger than I could ever have hoped to be.
And now she stands proud in the fields.
The fields where poppies grow.
And she sheds not a tear.

For she knows that I died for the good of this land.
For the women, for the children
For the country.
And I died as a hero in her eyes.
I know my memory will live on for ever more

Not as a ghost, but as a soldier.