Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/107

 Potatoes or wheat, or even wood

That is kind and burns with a flame to warm

Li^■ing men who are comforted —

In a thing that has served so many dead ?

There is no thrift in a graveyard dress,

It's been shroud for too many men.

I'll burn it and let the dead bless.

(He crosses himself and throws it into the fire. Ho watches it burn. The Counter continues to pile up the metal checks, and drop them by hundreds into the trays, which he piles one upon another. The Bearer turns from the fire and speaks more slowly than he has before. He indicates the metal checks.)

"Would not the blood of these make a great sea

For men to sail their ships on ? It may be

No fish would swim in it, and the foul smell

Would make the sailors sick. Perhaps in Hell

There's some such lake for men who rush to war

Prating of glory, and upon the shore

Will stand the wives and children and old men

Bereft, to drive them back again

\Mien they seek haven. Some such thing

I thought the while I bore it on my back

And heard the metal pieces clattering.

The Counter

Four score — fi\'c score — These and many more, a

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