My friends and I are sitting in this bombed out house Our rifles rest against the wall No lamp is lit As daylight fades the little window frames the moon We smoke, we read, we write a letter home We don't dwell on horrors past Nor on what is yet to come
I won't let my guts gush out Into foreign mud Nor die in no man's land alone I want to make it back to you I want to make it home
We're winning now, they're on the run Supplies cut off, they're desperate They've suffered even more than us But we have to keep the pressure up One thing I've learned while I've been here Don't underestimate the ***
I've been here such a long time now Seen so many good men die Killed a good few too I know that danger still surrounds us Even now I might not make it through
I just need to carry on Hold on to my life You know that when I make it back to you Soon we will be man and wife
Jack
Inspired by the life of my grandfather, who volunteered to go to France in 1914 with the British Expeditionary Force and survived the entire war. It seems appropriate to re-post this today, on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak. I have posted a sketch on my home page which he drew at the time and was the inspiration for the poem. It is pencil on a post card, now showing its age.