The Girl with Poppies in her Hair

…… a memoir of Amiens Trenches 1916

By Orlaith Danaher   5th Class

Amiens trenches…

Deep smells of angry earth mix with the bitter gunpowder

I’m frozen with cold and fear

As I keep watch in a thigh-high mud shell-hole.

Sentry’s duty is mine

Not my war.

My duty.

Machine gun’s furious patter rips the air

I leap to defend.

In shock,

In confusion,

I bravely rescue the wretched…GIRL.

Amiens trenches.

No more I smell the angry earth

For I am part of it now

No cold

No fear

Just red dancing poppies

And the memory of the girl  with death in her eyes.

A spy