Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/51

 V

REEN gardens in Laventie!

Soldiers only know the street

Where the mud is churned and splashed about

By battle-wending feet;

And yet beside one stricken house there is a glimpse of grass.

Look for it when you pass.

Beyond the church whose pitted spire

Seems balanced on a strand

Of swaying stone and tottering brick

Two roofless ruins stand,

And here behind the wreckage where the back wall should have been

We found a garden green.

The grass was never trodden on,

The little path of gravel

Was overgrown with celandine,

No other folk did travel

Along its weedy surface, but the nimble-footed mouse

Running from house to house.

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