The Relief
Belgian Flanders, November 1917
After days facing
pestilence bags, blue
and red yarn-ball
weapons, bat skins, and the long
black-beaked cemetery birds
we were relieved on the 1st
at 5 p.m. by the remains
of 7th Division’s South Staffords.
Notes on Sources
This poem draws from Dunn, Captain J. C. The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919. 1938. London: Abacus Books, 1994. 159. And from Machik’s Complete Explanation, Sarah Harding, Trans. Ithaca, New York & Boulder, Colorado: Tsadra Foundation, Snow Lion Publications, 2003. 235.
