An English Soldier In Africa

[poliphilo]

Going through stuff in the attic I found a poem I wrote when I was 20 or 21 called An English Soldier in Africa. It strikes poses in a way I couldn't countenance today but there's something about it I quite like- so I started thinking about how I might write it if I were coming at the subject today- and the outcome was this completely different poem with the same title...

 An English Soldier In Africa.

I've had what they call an education.
I know what the Latin says on that stone.
I have no quarrel with any nation.
I think we should leave one another alone.

I have or once had a girl in Blighty.
She's working an anti-aircraft gun.
(I think of her in her baby doll nightie) 
She makes it sound like it's wonderful fun.

I'll write her back but I don't think I'll mention
The German chap in the tank over there,
Half out of the hatch as if stood to attention,
His skin burned black and his teeth all bare.

My death waits for me beyond this wadi.
He's wearing goggles against the sand.
I'll shoot at him like a good little squaddie
But all that I want is to shake his hand....

Comments

[cmcmck]

I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now. . . .

[poliphilo]

The chaps on my mind are the poet Sidney Keyes who died in North Africa and my Uncle Dick who survived the North African campaign but died in Italy.

[mtbc]

Thank you for sharing. (-:

[poliphilo]

I don't write many poems. When I do it's a red letter day.