50p
Dear Mary
Each term our students participates in a creative writing contest, named in honour of long-time Brentwood English teacher, yearbook editor and houseparent, Ms. Beth Meluish. Below is the sonnet composed by the Grade 10 winner, Jemma O, Mackenzie ‘19.
Dear Mary,
I write to thee with love and prayers of hope;
Wishing I stood with you, your hand in mine;
Heartache besieges men who barely cope;
Remembering the loved and lost in time.
Men march under the fire, onward we go;
The birds take flight; escape this greedy ground;
I watch my brothers’ fall, skin pale as snow;
No hour to waste; reload, another round.
Yet once I thought fighting was for the good;
Purpose is obsolete, shot with my gun;
His eyes wide open, standing where I stood;
The seconds slow, I’m not the only one.
And weep for souls we lost since this began;
For now I breathe, alive a woeful man.