White Magic Studio

astralizey:

By soldier-poet Roland Leighton, killed in action at age 19 in World War I

I have known
the sweetness of love.
The songs of springtime
with its mandolin winds.
All the pleasures of a child
played with and tired of.

Now thrust on the battlefields
of blood and death.
All around me flows the horrors of war.
Blood and destruction
but all this must one time end.

I am tired of love
that is given for only lending.
The impatient and unfaithful heart.
All the unimportant
despicable pettiness of peace.

Give me
Oh blessed Gods of war.
A hell of fire.
A battlefield of blood and death.
The burdens of
a strong man’s agony.