"Your country needs you!"
The recruitment poster claimed,
I listened to my fathers words;
"Run boy, and sign your name"
Like in my dreams I was a soldier
With a badge that bore the thistle,
We marched to the fife and drums
To a tune I would proudly whistle.
I was seventeen and a little naive,
They gave me a real gun to shoot,
A wooden box of silver bullets
And spit and polish for my boots.
I knew how to shine my buttons,
To eat beans out a rusty can,
And to kill time in the trenches
But not how to kill another man.
I learned how to load my rifle
And how to clean off the mud,
Prepared for the sweat and tears
But not for the sight of blood.
Run Boy!
Robert Horton