He didn’t particularly want to die,
but Kitchener needed him,
so the poster said,
the horrors of war never entered his head.
The glorious adventure was all he could see
like so many others
and he wanted to join
this band of brothers.
It would all be over by Christmas
everyone believed
and France and Belgium
would soon be relieved.
He laughed and joked as they set sail,
Impatient to get going
into a hell
he had no way of knowing.
This eager young man
full of life, in his prime
seeing Dover’s white cliffs
for the very last time.
