At the crowded gangway they kissed good-bye. <br />He had half a mind to scold her. <br />An officer's mother and not keep dry <br />The epaulet on his shoulder. <br /> <br />He had forgotten mother and fame, <br />His mind in a blood-mist floated, <br />But when reeling back from carnage they came, <br />One told him: "You are promoted!" <br /> <br />His friend smiled up from the wet red sand, <br />The look was afar, eternal, <br />But he tried to salute with his shattered hand: <br />"Room now for another colonel!" <br /> <br />Again he raged in that lurid hell <br />Where the country he loved had thrown him. <br />"You are promoted!" shrieked a shell. <br />His mother would not have known him.<br /><br />Katharine Lee Bates<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/glory/
