Slamming Flies (Gallipoli – 5th June 1915)

Arriving at the Dardanelles
guns flashing, the sound of rifle fire.
they heaved our ship right up to the shore.

We sat there waiting for the dawn
And saw a big marquee
that made us think of village fetes.

We all rushed to it
like boys going to a circus
but found it all laced up.

Unlaced and opened, It was full of corpses.
Dead Englishme...

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Home By Christmas

I fear I let my feelings rule my head,
that you would have no trouble getting leave.
You would be home by Christmas as they said.

All through the Autumn, sleeping cold in bed,
I dreamt of all our marriage would achieve.
I fear I let my feelings rule my head.

Not since the day that both of us were wed
had we missed carols, sung that holy eve.
You would be home by Ch...

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Angel of Mons

Perhaps it was the heartbeat of the guns

Thump-thumping in a cacophonic rage,

or the secret, sly, scurry of the rats

that banished sleep those first nights at the front.

For when I marched, the sky became a wall,

the moonlight through the dust made me believe

I saw some great cathedral in the gloom,

with windows of stained glass cast from the stars.

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