Morality matters

Muttered the manic ex-military

Whilst eating sliced bread, buttered,

In a sanatorium near Lymington-on-Sea

It is spring 1918, you see

Before the Big Push or the Battle of the Bulge

Recuperation they call it

Between the waxing of the moon,

And the rising of the sun

An armistice was agreed between Gregor and his demons

A sort of peace achieved by glaring into empty space

Music runs and trills in his mind like water shining and gleaming

And leaping over rocks.

Music and light

To wash away the stench of blood.

But Gregor is still 

Under the big skies of the Somme Gregor is lost amongst the poppies in Flanders fields

Where young men die and the old men walk on by

Goodness clings to decency even at the front

Gregor whispers to the ward

Where the orderly comes with the order of attack

There's no going forward and no going back.