Poem from Alfie at Margaret Roper

Following a visit to the battlefields and war cemeteries of Belgium, Alfie, a Year 6 pupil from Margaret Roper in Croydon, wrote this wonderfully moving piece of poetry. We would like to take this opportunity to share it with the wider Archdiocese. Thank you Alfie for providing us with this opportunity to reflect on the loss and sacrifice of so many.

Names of the fallen:

In a small town in Belgium,
Engraved on the side
Of a bridge, are the names of the people who died
Resting in peace,
Shot down by lead
And now they are here
Anything but dead.

For they live on
In all of our hearts
In the women who said ‘til death us do part’
But they are not dead
They still live on
In the names that we read.
So I find a name

From my own family,
Shed a tear thinking
Of their own bravery
As they fell,
They hear the Lord God calling
As I sit and read, the names of the fallen.

By Alfie (Year 6) Margaret Roper