19. Their Frailty. Sassoon, Siegfried. 1918. Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Counter-Attack and Other Poems. 1918.

19. Their Frailty

HE’S got a Blighty wound. He’s safe; and then
War’s fine and bold and bright.
She can forget the doomed and prisoned men
Who agonize and fight.

He’s back in France. She loathes the listless strain	5
And peril of his plight,
Beseeching Heaven to send him home again,
She prays for peace each night.

Husbands and sons and lovers; everywhere
They die; War bleeds us white	10
Mothers and wives and sweethearts,—they don’t care
So long as He’s all right.