Rhymes of a Red Cross Man

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"></SPAN></p> <br/> <h2> Our Hero </h2> <p>"Flowers, only flowers&mdash;bring me dainty posies,<br/> Blossoms for forgetfulness," that was all he said;<br/> So we sacked our gardens, violets and roses,<br/> Lilies white and bluebells laid we on his bed.<br/> Soft his pale hands touched them, tenderly caressing;<br/> Soft into his tired eyes came a little light;<br/> Such a wistful love-look, gentle as a blessing;<br/> There amid the flowers waited he the night.<br/> <br/> "I would have you raise me; I can see the West then:<br/> I would see the sun set once before I go."<br/> So he lay a-gazing, seemed to be at rest then,<br/> Quiet as a spirit in the golden glow.<br/> So he lay a-watching rosy castles crumbling,<br/> Moats of blinding amber, bastions of flame,<br/> Rugged rifts of opal, crimson turrets tumbling;<br/> So he lay a-dreaming till the shadows came.<br/> <br/> "Open wide the window; there's a lark a-singing;<br/> There's a glad lark singing in the evening sky.<br/> How it's wild with rapture, radiantly winging:<br/> Oh it's good to hear that when one has to die.<br/> I am horror-haunted from the hell they found me;<br/> I am battle-broken, all I want is rest.<br/> Ah! It's good to die so, blossoms all around me,<br/> And a kind lark singing in the golden West.<br/> <br/> "Flowers, song and sunshine, just one thing is wanting,<br/> Just the happy laughter of a little child."<br/> So we brought our dearest, Doris all-enchanting;<br/> Tenderly he kissed her; radiant he smiled.<br/> "In the golden peace-time you will tell the story<br/> How for you and yours, sweet, bitter deaths were ours. . . .<br/> God bless little children!" So he passed to glory,<br/> So we left him sleeping, still amid the flow'rs.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />