Page:Sassoon, Siegfried - Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918).djvu/52

 , how are things in Heaven? I wish you'd say,
 * Because I'd like to know that you're all right.

Tell me, have you found everlasting day,
 * Or been sucked in by everlasting night?

For when I shut my eyes your face shows pain;
 * I hear you make some cheery old remark—

I can rebuild you in my brain,
 * Though you've gone out patrolling in the dark.

You hated tours of trenches; you were proud
 * Of nothing more than having good years to spend;

Longed to get home and join the careless crowd
 * Of chaps who work in peace with Time for friend.

That's all washed out now. You're beyond the wire:
 * No earthly chance can send you crawling back;

You've finished with machine-gun fire—
 * Knocked over in a hopeless dud-attack.