Aftermath
HAVE you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same,??and War's a bloody game....
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,??
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,??
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,??
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring that you'll never forget.
-Siegfried Sassoon
James Fleming, post: 455026, member: 136 wrote: Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same,??and War's a bloody game....
Gunga Din
You may talk o?? gin and beer
When you??re quartered safe out ??ere,
An?? you??re sent to penny-fights an?? Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An?? you??ll lick the bloomin?? boots of ??im that??s got it.
Now in Injia??s sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin?? of ??Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them blackfaced crew
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din,
He was ??Din! Din! Din!
??You limpin?? lump o?? brick-dust, Gunga Din!
??Hi! Slippy hitherao
??Water, get it! Panee lao,
??You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.??
The uniform ??e wore
Was nothin?? much before,
An?? rather less than ??arf o?? that be??ind,
For a piece o?? twisty rag
An?? a goatskin water-bag
Was all the field-equipment ??e could find.
When the sweatin?? troop-train lay
In a sidin?? through the day,
Where the ??eat would make your bloomin?? eyebrows crawl,
We shouted ??Harry By!??
Till our throats were bricky-dry,
Then we wopped ??im ??cause ??e couldn??t serve us all.
It was ??Din! Din! Din!
??You ??eathen, where the mischief ??ave you been?
??You put some juldee in it
??Or I??ll marrow you this minute
??If you don??t fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!??
??E would dot an?? carry one
Till the longest day was done;
An?? ??e didn??t seem to know the use o?? fear.
If we charged or broke or cut,
You could bet your bloomin?? nut,
??E??d be waitin?? fifty paces right flank rear.
With ??is mussick on ??is back,
??E would skip with our attack,
An?? watch us till the bugles made 'Retire,??
An?? for all ??is dirty ??ide
??E was white, clear white, inside
When ??e went to tend the wounded under fire!
It was ??Din! Din! Din!??
With the bullets kickin?? dust-spots on the green.
When the cartridges ran out,
You could hear the front-ranks shout,
??Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!??
I shan??t forgit the night
When I dropped be??ind the fight
With a bullet where my belt-plate should ??a?? been.
I was chokin?? mad with thirst,
An?? the man that spied me first
Was our good old grinnin??, gruntin?? Gunga Din.
??E lifted up my ??ead,
An?? he plugged me where I bled,
An?? ??e guv me ??arf-a-pint o?? water green.
It was crawlin?? and it stunk,
But of all the drinks I??ve drunk,
I??m gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.
It was 'Din! Din! Din!
????Ere??s a beggar with a bullet through ??is spleen;
????E's chawin?? up the ground,
??An?? ??e??s kickin?? all around:
??For Gawd??s sake git the water, Gunga Din!??
??E carried me away
To where a dooli lay,
An?? a bullet come an?? drilled the beggar clean.
??E put me safe inside,
An?? just before ??e died,
'I ??ope you liked your drink,?? sez Gunga Din.
So I??ll meet ??im later on
At the place where ??e is gone??
Where it??s always double drill and no canteen.
??E??ll be squattin?? on the coals
Givin?? drink to poor damned souls,
An?? I??ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!
Yes, Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I??ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin?? Gawd that made you,
You??re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)
gschrock, post: 455056, member: 556 wrote: To go into the unknown
I must enter and leave, alone,
I know not how.
