Inspired by research into my grandfather's brother, who fell on 9th October 1917. Thought I would submit this today as it is Remeberance Sunday. <br /> <br /> <br />A harsh breeze blows on their soft faces <br />No trees left for wind to whistle through <br />The Captain’s blow redresses the deficit <br />Orders from above or rather from behind <br /> <br />Down the wire the signals come <br />On the wire their lives balance precariously <br />But to reach those barbs they will fail today <br />Three weeks of rain await decisions insane <br /> <br />The first battle of Passchendaele doth wait <br />A third attempt on the Ypres line <br />No lessons learned it seems clear as day <br />Despite the obvious impending Quagmire <br /> <br />Over the top, just one more push they say <br />They’ve heard it all before we know <br />Not least for Private Peter Tighe of the great <br />Lancashire Fusiliers, Battalion two eight <br /> <br />Soldier, you’ve done it all before <br />The Somme, Arras and Vimy Ridge <br />Witnessed such appalling atrocities <br />Stayed alive all but to delay your fate <br /> <br />And now you don’t stand a chance <br />A sitting duck for the guns of the Hun <br />Stuck in the mud is no longer a game <br />Machines of death, the bullets do rain <br /> <br />Even the enemy can see the folly <br />Shameful fingers pulling shameful triggers <br />Their bloody work seen through tear-soaked eyes <br />This is naught but pitiful slaughter they cry <br /> <br />Cannon fodder it’s often said of they <br />Our boys on the front will save the day <br />Soon there’ll be a last drawn breath <br />A telegram of ironic regrets of death <br /> <br />And later, the gathering of parts inhumane <br />From an abstract mosaic of an abstract story <br />Marked and matched as best one can <br />To be thrown beneath a tablet marked ‘Glory’<br /><br />Gary Fellows<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/boy-soldier-2/
