lauantai 3. syyskuuta 2022

A CHRISTENING INTO THE RELIGION OF WAR

I have begun musketry. I have lectures on making maps.
Once a week we have night operations to get used to the sound
& sight of troops in the dark.
Once a week we have a march around Hampstead ending with a swim.

- Edward Thomas(1878-1917), September 3rd 1915.

So much a man has to learn
so that he can be allowed
to die for his country.

A map he has to make
to mark the place
where he would fall.

And once a week given
baptism in a river, without
hope of a resurrection,

for they are baptised
into the religion of war,
in which the wreaths

around the heads
of the fallen are made
out of their intestines.

03.09.2022


#Poem #Poems #Poetry #Verse

Ei kommentteja:

Lähetä kommentti