Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/194

 INCIDENTS AND ASPECTS

EZ I: My Country calls? Well, let it call.

I grins perlitely and declines with thanks.

Go, let 'em plaster every blighted wall,

'Ere's one they don't stampede into the ranks.

Them politicians with their greasy ways;

Them empire-grabbers fight for 'em? No fear!

I've seen this mess a-comin' from the days

Of Algyserious and Aggydear:

I've felt me passion rise and swell,

But. . . wot the 'ell, Bill? Wot the 'ell?

Sez I: My Country? Mine? I likes their cheek.

Me mud-bespattered by the cars they drive,

Wot makes me measly thirty bob a week,

And sweats red blood to keep meself alive!

Fight for the right to slave that they may spend,

Them in their mansions, me 'ere in my slum?

No, let 'em fight wot's something to defend:

But me, I've nothin', let the Kaiser come.

And so I cusses 'ard and well,

But. . . wot the 'ell, Bill? Wot the 'ell?