Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/88

 62 LINCOLN COLCORD

(Did you know that a man could live while maggots formed in his flesh ?)

His muscles twitched convulsively, he was barely conscious ;

He did not notice the match I struck, his eyes were filmed over, he would not drink ;

The region that he inhabited was an unknown, un- imaginable land.

(At home, a woman waits for news of him : It is well that she can never hear.)

5.

Pass on, pass on ! Behold the mobilization of

armies ; The men leaving their work at the counter and

factory, dropping the plow where it stands in

the field, Flocking together, filling the towns, saying good-by

to wife and children, taking a last look around ; {Our country calls ! Our country, and our King !)

Behold the flinging forward of nations in the wake of

armies ; The marvellous, massive engines, the enormous

paraphernalia ; The powerful mechanical conveyances, the long

lines of them carrying supplies ;

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