Short Poems

DESTROYERS IN COLLISION

For Fog and Fate no charm is found
To lighten or amend.
I, hurrying to my bride, was drowned —
Cut down by my best friend.

THE SLEEPY SENTINEL

Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none to keep.
I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep.
Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is unkept —
I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.

BOMBED IN LONDON

On land and sea I strove with anxious care
To escape conscription. It was in the air!

NATIVE WATER-CARRIER (M.E.F.)

Prometheus brought down fire to men.
This brought up water.
The Gods are jealous — now, as then,
Giving no quarter.

R.A.F. (AGED EIGHTEEN)

Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still unshed,
Cities and men he smote from overhead.
His deaths delivered, he returned to play
Childlike, with childish things now put away.

THE FAVOUR

Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I could not endure
To wait on him day by day. He quitted my betters and came
Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made all sure,
" Thy line is at end, " he said, " but at least I have saved its name. "

A GRAVE NEAR CAIRO

Gods of the Nile, should this stout fellow here
Get out — get out! He knows not shame nor fear.

SHOCK

My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.
My wife and children came — I knew them not.
I died. My Mother followed. At her call
And on her bosom I remembered all.

HINDU SEPOY IN FRANCE

This man in his own country prayed we know not to what Powers.
We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in ours.

HINDU SEPOY IN FRANCE

This man in his own country prayed we know not to what Powers.
We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in ours.