Dickey, we've trained and fit and died, <br /> <br />Yes, drilled and drunk and bled, <br /> <br />And shared our chuck and our bunks in life. <br /> <br />Why part us now we're dead? <br /> <br /> <br />Would I rot so nice away from you, <br /> <br />Who has been my pal for a year? <br /> <br />Will Gabriel's trumpet waken me, <br /> <br />If you ain't there to hear? <br /> <br /> <br />Will a parcel of bones in a wooden box <br /> <br />Remind my Ma of me? <br /> <br />Or isn't it better for her to think <br /> <br />Of the kid I used to be? <br /> <br /> <br />It's true some preacher will get much class <br /> <br />A tellin' what guys we've been, <br /> <br />So, the fact that we're not sleeping with pals, <br /> <br />Won't cut no ice for him. <br /> <br /> <br />They'll yell, 'Hurrah!' <br /> <br />And every spring they'll decorate our tomb, <br /> <br />But we'll be absent at the spot <br /> <br />We sought, and found, our doom. <br /> <br /> <br />The flags and flowers won't bother us, <br /> <br />Our free souls will be far -- <br /> <br />Holdin' the line in sunny France <br /> <br />Where we died to win the war. <br /> <br /> <br />Fact is, we need no flowers and flags <br /> <br />For each peasant will tell his son, <br /> <br />'Them graves on the hill is the graves of <br /> <br />Yanks, Who died to lick the Hun.' <br /> <br /> <br />And instead of comin' every spring <br /> <br />To squeeze a languid tear, <br /> <br />A friendly people's loving care <br /> <br />Will guard us all the year.<br /><br />General George S Patton Jnr<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dead-pals/
