Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/106

 80 LOUISE DRISCOLL

(As the Counter speaks the Bearer lays the sack over his arm and helps count.)

The Counter

Put a hundred in each tray — We can tally them best that way. Careful — do you understand You have ten men in your hand ? There's another fallen — there — Under that chair. (The Bearer finds it and restores it.)

That was a man a month ago ; He could see and feel and know. Then, into his throat there sped A bit of lead.

Blood was salt in his mouth ; he fell And lay amid the battle wreck. Nothing was left but this metal check — And a wife and child, perhaps.

(The Bearer finds the bag on his arm troublesome. He holds it up, inspecting it.)

The Bearer

What can one do with a thing like this ?

Neither of life nor death it is !

For the dead serve not, though it served the dead.

The wounds it carried were wide and red,

Yet they stained it not. Can a man put food.

�� �