Page:Sassoon, Siegfried - Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918).djvu/28

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WIRERS

"Pass it along, the wiring party's going out"—
And yawning sentries mumble, "Wirers going out."
Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,
They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.

The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,
Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts
Stride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snare
Of snags and tangles.

Ghastly dawn with vaporous coasts
Gleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended.

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