Soldier

A fresh faced boy of seventeen,
I kissed her cheek through railway steam,
A velvet kiss that stayed with me,
On carrion wings to Tripoli,
And Anzio, but part of me,
Fell innocent at Normandy.

Till cowering in some shell shocked hole,
With sightless eyes and hollow soul,
I racked my brain to see her face,
But gone was she, and home...replaced,
With travestys of human flesh,
Limbless, ragged wraiths of death,
The horror and futility,
Of all I am revealed to me,
The harshest casualty of war,
To forget the one I'm fighting for.