A Grade 12 student of Fraser Valley Adventist Academy in Aldergrove was recently presented with a $150 cheque from the Abbotsford Legion.
Meagan Wiebe received the funds for placing third – out of 7,000 students from across the B.C./Yukon district – for a poem she submitted into the literary and poster contest.
Her future plans are to go on to university to study journalism and creative writing.
This is Wiebe’s poem that earned her third place:
I’M COMING HOME
I’m coming home for our first kiss
Because the bullets, they always miss.
You’ll see my pride, strength and glory
I’ll have the most victorious story.
I’m coming home for our wedding day,
Even though they too often say,
My dream is futile; will never come true
But I’m making a promise, and it is to you.
I’m coming home for our first child,
The way she laughs and beams and smiles.
I’ll dance with her feet standing on mine,
And ask why you’re crying when I’m here and fine.
I’m coming home on her first day of school,
Even though there’s a dark red pool
Of blood all around me, staining my clothes,
These gunshot wounds are more than I’d hoped.
I’m coming home and now is the time,
Just a bit early I’m going to arrive.
The war is not over but my time is now done,
Just wait for me over the setting sun.
I see your face with tears unexpected,
I don’t look the same and you can’t accept it.
My skin is quite pale, eyes closed tight.
I thought I wanted the glory of fight.
Only 19 years old and these moments were stolen,
For the war took my heart, my body, and broke it.
I’m going to my grave, for it’s where I will lie,
I’m coming home today,
The day that I died.