Prose & Poetry - War Poetry of S J Robinson - Old Friend's Last Request
Reproduced within this area
of the site are present-day First World War poems written by S. J. Robinson.
Click here for an introduction to the poems.
Old Friend's Last Request
Do you see those footprints
in the snow?
That young child's sledge? The rose-red glow?
They once were ours, and memories lend
Of age-long friendship, never end.
She has no grief: attends no worries:
My time stands still-for her it hurries.
That lad, with the tree-climbers' graz-ed knee
- He once was you: he once was me.
That girl, joining footballers, just for fun
- Thing's haven't changed since we were young.
Youth and Innocence, our Own Small World,
'Til evil snaked around us, curled
Now young men boast of
loves, careers
For them the future holds no fears.
Made bomb-proof, shell-proof by decades' retort
War's again an adventure; killing, sport.
So, they, like us, drawn by battle-sun's glory
Won't heed an old man's tragic story
We who, once, a healthy, lively, strong
Cannot help but sleep beneath the Somme
But, you, the Left, can tell, must warn
Of stormy threat to spring's new dawn.
Our rose-red fades, grazed knees now rot
But our message must live, ne'er be forgot
From Us make them learn,
let then receive
The legacy those before them leave
Tell them of reality, of loss, of pain
That war is fruitless, of who remain
If not for them, then speak for us
For what we fought for, died and lost
Let their spring, let their
skies stay fine
Let not clouds of fourteen spoil thirty-nine.
A 'flying pig' was a mortar bomb.
- Did you know?
