Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/173

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A CASUALTY
171

yards away I hear an explosion like a mine-blast, followed by a sudden belch of coal-black smoke. I stare at it in a dazed way. Then the doctor says: “Don’t trouble to analyze your sensations. Better get off. You’re only drawing their fire.”

Here is one of my experiences:

A CASUALTY

That boy I took in the car last night,
With the body that awfully sagged away,
And the lips blood-crisped, and the eyes flame-bright,
And the poor hands folded and cold as clay–
Oh, I’ve thought and I’ve thought of him all the day.


For the weary old doctor says to me:
“He’ll only last for an hour or so.
Both of his legs below the knee
Blown off by a bomb.… So, lad, go slow,
And please remember, he doesn’t know.”


So I tried to drive with never a jar;
And there was I cursing the road like mad,
When I hears a ghost of a voice from the car:
“Tell me, old chap, have I ‘copped it’ bad?”
So I answers “No,” and he says, “I’m glad.”


“Glad,” says he, “for at twenty-two
Life’s so splendid, I hate to go.
There’s so much good that a chap might do,