A promise

A promise

The moon is lit
The summer eve is warm
And suddenly you bend on one knee
A promise is what you propose to me
We dream about the future-happiness
But the ominous draft finds you
A promise is what you made to me
That you'd write as soon as you could
Your first letter came and then a second
Your third six months after
A promise of survival and reunion at the end
Nearly a year later
A promise is what you broke to me
Austere looking men show up at your childhood door
Letter in hand they pass it on
Your mother wails and your father weeps
A promise of knowledge is what they kept to you.
Time goes on and we say goodbye
I am old, a grandmother now
On my desk sits a picture of you
A promise I made many, many years ago.