Suicide in the Trenches

[petronius]

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.


You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

-- Siegfried Sassoon

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Ah, my dear petronius...

The hell where youth and laughter go.


:cry:


For our Memorial Day dead

:patriot:

[petronius]

6. I've been reading Sassoon and watching Predator - it's a painful dissonance

(Also, I've been drinking - a lot. :))

[petronius]

7. I've been reading Sassoon and watching Predator - it's a painful dissonance

(Also, I've been drinking - a lot. :))

[mokawanis]

2. right on

Thanks for that. The majority of people who want war at any given time are the ones who will not fight. They'll get all swelled up about the righteousness of the cause but they will not step into the muck to kill and be killed.

[petronius]

8. And that message has been expressed for at least a century - I do not

understand why it doesn't catch on...

:shrug:

[Heidi]

3. RIP, Steve Mason, VVA poet laureate.

:cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5289792

[petronius]

4. wow

What a loss - thanks for the link...

[Heidi]

5. That's the most perfect poem I've ever read.

Here's my entry about it in an art journal I made for a friend's birthday.