The Deadman's Penny

His duty done he lies in the villages of the dead He died at Villiers Bretonneux whilst facing the enemy ahead At home they thought of him when he would be returned But when the telegram came all those hopes were burned As an Australian soldier of the Empire he made the grade And so his deadman's penny is in the kitchen a display made His mother's heart aches each time she sits at rest And all the time she sits and cries and holds the penny to her chest. © Paul Warren Poetry