Back of Florent, in the Argonne Forest, East met West in those few short hours, Each of them were thinking thots, The air and trees were full of sounds, To an open space in the road we came, Sh-h! Hush! Make no noise, Soon we reached those barren trenches, At eleven P. M. that eventful night, God! how those endless minutes dragged, At last five-thirty, the "Zero Hour" came, What did we find when "Over the Top", All day long we pushed him back, The men were gaunt with hunger, Were you ever out on the battlefields While comrades you loved as brothers, and more, Three days we went, till our strength was spent, Exhausted from fighting and dead for sleep, At break of dawn the "Boche" closed in, For three long days we fought in that trap, All hopes gone, our hearts in despair, We went at the food like a pack of wolves, No one could picture, try as they might, But on and an we carried the fight, On the side of a cliff two hundred feet high, Did you ever lay out in the cold all night, If you have, then perhaps you can sense, Fighting all day, holding out by pure grit, Death thinned our ranks, took tenfold her toll, Relief came at last as it always does We stumbled out more dead than alive, The price was made and the price was paid, |
At close of spring day in Sable, Thots of my dear lonely mother, Always a-thinking of me, The long endless nights of waiting, As skies went tinting blue and gold, |
Treasures in bits of papers, Each to his way of thinking, Twas in the lines in the heat of a fight, Without water, food or shelter, Our orders were to hold that post, Just a bit of a so-called Wop, It was, "What-a-da-hell? Let 'em a-come, Myself, I gotta da sweet leetle wife, Then Tony told me his story, "When-a I was joost-a leetle a-boy, He tell of a country paved-a with gold, Where no King and Queen can tell-a you, So, by-un-by, I grow up, And there I find-a it's joosta so true, Evra-a-body's-a joosta so free, An' den, I meet-a my sweet-a Marie, Oh, evra-ting she's-a joosta so nice, Evra thing he want ta take, So I grab-a da gun and cum along, Leesten, I don't-a mind-a dees now, Now wait, joosta you lie quiet, He took and shook me by the hand, So I'm done with material treasures, |
You who know electric lights, 'Tho obscure you're quite secure, When you start to go a-raidin', As you go a-sneakin', creepin', For when Jerry shoots his star-shells, If you see him shoot a green one, You lay stock still and breathless, So thru a night that's sometimes dim, And just as dawn is breaking, It makes you feel mighty humble, |
In early morn when day is born, And as the mist begins to lift, Instead of walls which barely stand, As plainly tho 'tis painted there, He's telling oft told tales of old, Then comes the end of this simple tale, Off to bed they go a-romping, "Bless mama, and papa, and give But now the vision is fading, From my right comes pop of a "Browning," |
When all the fighting was over, What a noble white-winged squad, French folks only laughed at us, 'Twas healthy work I'll grant you, So you can take that "Detail Army," |
Perhaps in the mud you've seen me, I do my bit as well perhaps, I'm just a bit of woven cloth, I too groaned under the weight, So if again some day we meet, |
On a moonlit road with comrades I strode,
The squeak of the packs on weary backs, French on our right kept pace thru the night When our shadows would fall on forest wall, We felt all a-chill as we topped a hill, Men moaned in pain, shrieked in vain, We'd have given our souls to get out of that hole, The fight kept on till grey bleak dawn, |
He came and went amongst us, His mission was one of kindness, I've seen him go among the maimed, When "Going In," to do our spell, You proved one of God's noblemen, |
See those men who go marching by, Been through it all from Ypre to the Meuse, Some will go South, some will go West, Some to the plows, some to the wheels, For they are the troops, shipping out, |
The Captain in charge said "Run the barrage, "It's damn near four, take two runners more, O'er stark bare ground we trailed around, Chet on my right said "God! what a sight," The clouds did frown and the rain come down, Just some nude bare walls about to fall, Above bombers soared and with dull heavy roar, Art on my left of his reason bereft, Earth shook and shivered our nerves fairly quivered, The planes up aloft turned tail and were off, We scrambled in haste past that war-made waste, |
From the North, East, South and West, Our simple greeting known as "Buddy," From small a thing as "Gimme a light," A man may have been of the Gospel bred, Country, color, creed and station, |