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Show BATTLE By Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. I. UNDER FIRE. We eat our breakfasts lying on our backs, Because the shells were screeching overhead. I bet a rasher to a loaf of bread That Hull United would beat Halifax When Jimmy Stainthorpe played his back instead Of Billy Bradford. Ginger raised his head, And cursed, and took the bet and dropt back dead. We eat our breakfast lying on our backs, Because the shells were screeching overhead. II THE MESSAGES. x cannot quite remember . . . There were five Dropt dead beside me in the trench and three Whispered their dying messages to me ... " Back from the trenches, more dead than alive, Stone-deaf and dazed, with a broken knee, He hobbled slowly, muttering vacantly: "I cannot quite remember .... There were five Dropt dead beside me in the trench and three Whispered their dying messages to me . . . Their friends are waiting, wondering how they thrive i Waiting a word in silence patiently But what they said, or who their friends may be ' I cannot quite remember .... There were five Dropt dead beside me in the trench and three Whispered their dying message to me ..." |