Twin boys I bore, my joy, my care, <br />My hope, my life they were to me; <br />Their father, dashing, debonair, <br />Fell fighting at Gallipoli. <br />His daring gallantry, no doubt, <br />They 'herited in equal share: <br />So when the Second War broke out, <br />With eagerness they chose the air. <br /> <br />Said Dick: "The sea's too bally slow; <br />A flying ship's the one for me." <br />Said Peter: "Land! Foot-slogging - no! <br />The jolly sky's my cup of tea." <br />Well, Dick bailed out in Channel flight, <br />His foam-flailed body never found; <br />While Peter, with his plane alight, <br />Dashed down to death on Kentish ground. <br /> <br />Gay lads they were, and tall and fair, <br />And had they chosen land or sea, <br />Shirking the hazards of the air, <br />They might still have been left to me. <br />But nothing could I say or do <br />To move their scorn of sea and land; <br />Like eagles to the sun they flew - <br />Why? Only they could understand. <br /> <br />Hw day and night I prayed for them! <br />But knew that it was ll in vain; <br />They measured with heroic men, <br />Yet . . . I will never pray again. <br />Though time may grieve my hair to grey, <br />My lips will never kiss the rod. . . . <br />Only in dying I may say <br />In pity - "I forgive you, God."<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sacrifices/
