A Soldier to His Horse in the Great War
“If in your eyes I see my boyhood bloom As poppies in the fields we knew at home, If I, now grown, should finish life too soon, And fall to bullets under some spring moon, So also do I see there your brave love. You carried me in peace, and now in war.
You stood while death rained down, and did not move. You wait, as you awaited me before. And if I don’t come back, I give you this:
I give you thanks no couplet could express. I give you, if I can, a final kiss, And, if I can, a grateful last embrace.
This time, I’ll wait in all those fields we knew. This time, no war, nor death. This time, you’ll see, I’ll live, though death may sever me from you – This time, I’ll wait for you, as you for me.”
- Grant Hayter-Menzies