Page:Poems Kennedy.djvu/127

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Back in the trenches strong men rave
To hear the helpless cries,
But none may venture forth to save
E'en when a brother dies
  Upon that awful slaughter-sod
   Of "No Man's Land."

The wounded, mid the stench of death,
Shriek out their curse or prayer,
And writhe and thirst and curse and die
And rot in wind-rows there,
  For barbarism is the creed
   Of "No Man's Land."

They call it well, for human heart
No rood of it would claim,
The devils of inferno hold
The fief in blood and shame,
  And hell is but another name
   For "No Man's Land."


RED CROSS

(Florence Nightingale did her mission of nursing before the institution of the Red Cross order; but she lived an invalid long years after its organization and was no doubt deeply interested in it.)

SPIRIT of Florence Nightingale
Bending where red shells rain,
'Twas you who blazed the mercy path
Across the battle plain.

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