ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT


There were fields of destruction wherever you looked
also fear and alarm in the air
and wisps of old horsehair just blowing about
and the strong scent of death everywhere.
Blown out like a candle when daylight has come
were the lives of many whose race had been run ,
‘ twas written in starlight and left the blokes numb
as the moon still rode high ‘cross the sand.

There’d been no consultation and no questions asked
just an order sent down from above,
that sat on the wobbling table right now -
didn’t fit like a hand in a glove.
Every word there stood out like each line on your palm
no soft soap to ease it, no lanolin balm,
most blokes would far rather have ripped off their arm
than to follow that dreadful command.

There were fields of destruction wherever you looked
but this one was quite unexpected
in all of their nightmares of war and its hell
they’d not planned killing mates they respected.
And after each friend there had given their best
faced up to the shortages, and lack of rest
and fulfilled with honest toil every request -
they were dealt this unfair bastard hand .

For close to a century their bones have rested
in the dunes of the Holy Lands sand
but even today how that order still rankles
Shoot the horses – the final command.

Maureen Clifford © 11/12

That's pretty good Maureen.

I don't think you need the last stanza. sorry.

If I ditched the last verse Neville - would you still have known it was about a horse?????