From somewhere in the Pacific

You mailed a snapshot from a foreign shore,
 Where warplanes zoom, and death itself is faced.
 On opening' it I caught the smile you wore,
And knew that grimmest horrors hadn't erased
 The boyish tenderness you always felt
 For every living creature while with me,
 And I rejoiced that carnage had not dealt
A blow to my son's innate charity.
Your men regard your orders when you call.
You stand erect, six feet in army clothes,
 Yet you're the boy who grieved at a robin's fall,
 And stooped to lift a crushed and trampled rose.
 Your snapshot cleared the tenseness in my breast,
 And so tonight I'll sleep in quiet rest.

 RACHEL LUMPKIN WYLY.