Unto the Somme

Entrenched
Behind failing lines,
These curtains of shrapnel and sharp steel
Conceal my misery,
So seamlessly, absently
I go on, numb, alone,
For sensation no longer blesses me.

Relentlessly, I force back my fear,
The absent tears never reach my cheeks
And thick blankets of earth and sand
Choke my cries, damp,  pitiful.
I fall to the boards clotted with death
As my breath abandons me
To my miserable lot.

The heavens pelt me relentlessly,
Mocking me, who should ever be here
By the hand in the air, waving frantically,
Stupidity, and with utter lucidity
I have made my own bed
And must now lie down
And die in it.

But before I am done, I am up,
The screams of dawn chills my bones
Gnawed weak by seasons grip,
As I slip in the filth, trip blindly
Over fallen men
That will not see another day;
I envy them.

Distant annihilation mocks me,
Thunder, not made by god, but Hawthorn;
She begs for blood.
And as she throws her filthy innards skywards
The flood of claret and mud
Clots my throat - I reach and vomit
Into my tin skull.

A lull, short, but eternal
Fills the dead air,
Then the shouts of madmen
Send me once more to my feet
Rotted beneath useless boots.
I swallow back through the agony
And brace.

Blinded by bedlam, I crawl up.
My breath held, my thoughts lost,
I cast myself over the top,
And into the red dirt -
Clawing my way under the razor wire,
It begins to cut the soul from my back
Then tears out twenty-thousand more. 

Copyright © 2013 by Simon Austin

Battle of the Somme - July 1st - November 16th 1916

This poem is inspired by the first day of The Battle of the Somme which saw the British Army suffer the worst day in its history, with some 20,000 men killed. It focuses on the emotional and physical turmoil of one man, on the frontline trench, awaiting his orders to go 'over the top' and ultimately, to his death - which on that day was almost an inevitability.

The Somme was one of the largest battles of the war; by the time fighting paused in late autumn 1916, the forces involved had suffered more than 1 million casualties, making it one of the bloodiest military operations ever recorded.  In total, over 95,000 British Commonwealth men were killed during the battle.