Saturday, January 16, 2010

Suicide in the Trenches, by Siegfried Sassoon

Here's a cheery little poem, set in the trenches of WWI...You'll never guess how it ends.

Suicide in the Trenches
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.

If you still don't get the message, perhaps listening to this high school choir tear apart "What The World Needs Now" -- no doubt that will put it all to rights:

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