National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 5/The Red Cross Spirit Speaks

The Red Cross Spirit Speaks
By John H. Finley

I kneel behind the soldier's trench, I walk 'mid shambles' smear and stench, The dead I mourn; I bear the stretcher and I bend O'er Fritz and Pierre and Jack to mend What shells have torn.

I go wherever men may dare, I go wherever woman's care And love can live; Wherever strength and skill can bring Surcease to human suffering, Or solace give.

I am your pennies and your pounds; I am your bodies on their rounds Of pain afar; I am you, doing what you would If you were only where you could— Your avatar.

The cross which on my arm I wear, The flag which o'er my breast I bear, Is but the sign Of what you'd sacrifice for him Who suffers on the hellish rim Of war's red line.

Source: John H. Finley (May 1917), “The Red Cross Spirit Speaks”, The National Geographic Magazine 31(5): 474.