War's a joke for me and you, <br />Wile we know such dreams are true. <br />- Siegfried Sassoon <br /> <br />Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death,- <br />Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,- <br />Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand. <br />We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,- <br />Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe. <br />He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed <br />Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft, <br />We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe. <br /> <br />Oh, Death was never enemy of ours! <br />We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum. <br />No soldier's paid to kick against His powers. <br />We laughed, -knowing that better men would come, <br />And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags <br />He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.<br /><br />Wilfred Owen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-next-war-2/
