'IN THE TRENCHES': A NEW POEM FROM RONALD TURNER'S PAINTING...

In The Trenches

(from Ronald Turner’s painting…)

Languid, drugged by trench warfare

An infantryman sits, useless,

Gazing coldly from skeletal eyes;

Spectral, haunted, mindless,

Worn, spirit torn, lifeless.

His countenance is sombre, yet listless,

Commanded now by death and seemingly unaware

Of his shadowy comrade’s tired stare…

Their niche is an inglorious shame

Of bloody, smoky mire,

Of pain, fear and fire

And of lives destroyed in duty’s name…

Pete Ray

November 2018

I met Ronald Turner in Chipping Campden last Sunday and he had previously produced this picture…