‘A Helping Hand’
(from Ronald Turner’s painting)
A battlefield pockmarked by blood and spoil:
Barren, burnt umber, bleak, buried,
A landscape of sheer abandonment,
And bereft of wildlife, grasses and trees;
A chaos of debris, holes and mire,
A melee of shrapnel and remnants of barbed wire,
Waste, threat and carnage dire,
Yet still within range of a sniper’s fire…
A battlefield pockmarked by no pity, just toil:
A helping hand, heroic, hurried,
A trench of queer abandonment,
A no man’s land in war’s cruel disease;
An arm of solace, comradeship and first-aid,
A reach of reassurance for the maimed and afraid,
Haste, regret but a recovery made,
Yet still within range of a sniper’s tirade…
Pete Ray
November 2018
Uniform non-uniformity…
The apparel blends too cruelly into the background: puttees tight around lower legs, supporting the ankles, keeping out damp, debris, even rodents from the boots and trouser legs, also being a means of tucking in ill-fitting trousers, thus allowing for a touch of neatness and surely easier marching.
A moment of humanity during a war of attrition…
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