Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/357

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But he was tired

Now. Every bone was aching, and had ached

For fourteen days and nights in that wet trench—

Just duller when he slept than when he waked—

Crouching for shelter from the steady drench

Of shell and shrapnel. ..

That old trench, it seemed

Almost like home to him. He'd slept and fed

And sung and smoked in it, while shrapnel screamed

And shells went whining harmless overhead—

Harmless, at least, as far as he. ..

But Dick—

Dick hadn't found them harmless yesterday,

At breakfast, when he'd said he couldn't stick

Eating dry bread, and crawled out the back way,

And brought them butter in a lordly dish—

Butter enough for all, and held it high,

Yellow and fresh and clean as you would wish—

When plump upon the plate from out the sky

A shell fell bursting. . . Where the butter went,

God only knew! . ..

And Dick. . . He dared not think

Of what had come to Dick. . . or what it meant—

The shrieking and the whistling and the stink

He'd lived in fourteen days and nights. 'Twas luck

That he still lived. . . And queer how little then

He seemed to care that Dick. . . perhaps 'twas pluck

That hardened him—a man among the men—

Perhaps. . . Yet, only think things out a bit,

And he was rabbit-livered, blue with funk!

And he'd liked Dick. . . and yet when Dick was hit,

He hadn't turned a hair. The meanest skunk

He should have thought would feel it when his mate

Was blown to smithereens—Dick, proud as punch,

Grinning like sin, and holding up the plate—

But he had gone on munching his dry hunch,

Unwinking, till he swallowed the last crumb.

Perhaps 'twas just because he dared not let

His mind run upon Dick, who'd been his chum,

He dared not now, though he could not forget.