Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/65

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Douglas Leader Durkin

He was up and out of cover at a bound;
He was raked with zipping bullets, but he mocked them with his grin;
Then we saw him fall— "They've got me, boys!' he cried;
But before he crawled to cover he had lugged his captain in—
Then he cursed his luck infernal—and he died!

So you've heard the little story—
Call it not a tale of, glory-
It's a story something worth, sir, just the same;
Though his words were devil lies,
Somewhere tears in woman's eyes
Plead God's mercy on a man who played the game

THANKSGIVING

A WAR-LORD sat in his place apart
And smiled to himself in his ease;
The struggle was over, the victory bought,
The guns were all silent, the battles all fought,
And he felt of himself in his pride, and he thought,
'I have lengthened my shores— I have widened my seas!'
And he thanked his good God from his heart.

A woman sat in her place apart And sobbed in her sorrow alone;
The, men of the town had come home from the fray—
Not all of the men-it is ever the way;
And she mused to herself in the gloom of her day,
And have still to herself will keep it my own!
And the good God thanked her from His heart!

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