Aftermath

=Aftermath =

1919
//Have you forgotten yet? ... // For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days, Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways: And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go, Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare. //But the past is just the same - and War's a bloody game ... // //Have you forgotten yet? ...// //Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.//

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz - The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets? Do you remember the rats; and the stench of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench - And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain? <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">Do you remember the hour of din before the attack - <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men? <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">With dying eyes and lolling heads - those ashen-grey <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">//Have you forgotten yet? ...// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">//Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">Accessed at: http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blsassoonwar.htm <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">