You had not imagined
you'd see the sights
you'd seen, or the smells
of death or sounds of
guns and shells.
You stood in the trench smoking,
inhaling slow and purposeful,
pushing, as best you could,
the sights seen from your mind.
Your boots stood in the mud,
your feet damp
where the boots leaked;
feeling the movements of lice,
you scratched.
You exhaled the smoke
and watched it
rise unevenly
before your eyes.
Two dead soldiers
lay a few feet away,
both you knew,
one quite a card,
now just a corpse
to be moved
when safe to move.
You vaguely recalled
your life back home,
the simple eagerness
to enlist.
You thought of Rosina
back in Blighty,
her bright eyes,
dark curly hair,
wishing you were
with her back there.
Feb 15, 2018
Feb 15, 2018 at 1:19 PM UTC
You had not imagined
you'd see the sights
you'd seen, or the smells
of death or sounds of
guns and shells.
You stood in the trench smoking,
inhaling slow and purposeful,
pushing, as best you could,
the sights seen from your mind.
Your boots stood in the mud,
your feet damp
where the boots leaked;
feeling the movements of lice,
you scratched.
You exhaled the smoke
and watched it
rise unevenly
before your eyes.
Two dead soldiers
lay a few feet away,
both you knew,
one quite a card,
now just a corpse
to be moved
when safe to move.
You vaguely recalled
your life back home,
the simple eagerness
to enlist.
You thought of Rosina
back in Blighty,
her bright eyes,
dark curly hair,
wishing you were
with her back there.
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