A PENNY FOR MY ONE TRUE LOVE

A dead man’s penny, that’s all they gave to me
A dead man’s penny for taking my one true love from me
No words of sorrow, no words of comfort
No attempt to hide their lies, or their hypocrisy
 
Why you ever chose to volunteer so early, I will never know
Was it because of some misguided trust in those that told you, now go
So many of their lies that you never could have  guessed the truth
Lies like you will be back home for Christmas day I heard them say
Whatever words they told you, they took my one true love away
 
You were never born to be a soldier, just a boy working on a farm
Whatever made you think that you could ever cause another man harm
Did you think you were fighting some just cause, or to impress me
Fighting for your country, or perhaps some greater might
Your duty was always to me first, how could you that not see
 
You wrote me letters, so few, but whenever you were able
Telling me how well your war was going, how good things were for you
I only found out much later that you were now lying to me too
But for different reasons than those who had sent you off to hell
You wanted only to protect me, your truth was too awful to ever tell
 
They sent you home once to me, for only a short few weeks
We got married in our local church, you promised me you would come back
That you would never leave me again, war would be over – then
I never saw you again after you left me to return back to your war in hell
And now I have a daughter that you will never know
 
SPOKEN OVER A PAUSE – And she will never know you, these are the only words to her I can tell
 
A dead man’s penny, that’s all they gave to me
A dead man’s penny for taking my one true love from me
No words of sorrow, no words of comfort
No attempt to hide their lies, or their hypocrisy

Words Copyright © Tom King 2018

NOTE
I was visiting an antique fair recently and came across a stall selling one of the "Dead Man's Pennies" from World War 1 and could not help but think of all the stories behind each of these bronze discs.  This is the story of a young widow left after the war struggling to come to terms with the loss of her one true love, a daughter that will never know her father and questioning just what use this piece of metal is to her.

For anyone not familiar with these plaques, this quote from Wikipedia pretty much tells the story
The Memorial Plaque was issued after the First World War to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war.
"The plaques (which could be described as large plaquettes) were made of bronze, and hence popularly known as the "Dead Man’s Penny", because of the similarity in appearance to the somewhat smaller penny coin. 1,355,000 plaques were issued, which used a total of 450 tonnes of bronze, and continued to be issued into the 1930s to commemorate people who died as a consequence of the war"