Poetry | The Countryman Soldier
Did you hear the cockerel?
Did you?
Did you?
Did you hear it in the morning light?
My mates just laughed,
"That was machine gun fire,
And the end of an injured man's plight."
Can you smell the roast beef?
Can you?
Can you?
Can you smell it from the front line?
My friends just smiled,
"They caught a huge meal today,
That old rat, in trench no. nine."
Is that the dinner gong?
Is it?
Is it?
Is that the gong for our tea?
My comrades just said,
"That's the guns firing once again,
There's more dead outside, you'll see."
Please Sir can we go home?
Please Sir?
Please Sir?
I've a family and a house bricked with red.
And the men didn't laugh,
"You won't see them again,"
They slowly, sadly said.
And sometimes I lie asleep and dream,
Of a red brick house, by a tumbling stream,
And when I awake to the aeroplanes mew,
I ask, did you hear the cockerel?
Did you?
Did you?
© Clare Selley 2009
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