To The Statue of a Soldier At Sevenoaks
(i.m. W. J. H.)
July the First - start of the Somme.
Today you are a bronzed hero,
the sun puts colour on your face,
the wind tries to ruffle your hair.
Tomorrow the rain will wash you,
perform ablutions, provide tears,
rinse dust from your pack and khaki.
But today you lean on the Lee Enfield,
stare into the gallant abstract of time,
with no relief for a proud frieze.
Behind your back the North Downs
split open like a skull;
you cannot watch cricket on the Vine,
or envy the lovers’ old rites.
If you could you dream of a night
when a girl might climb the plinth
to kiss your hard lips and rouse you
by her touch to kick away the rifle,
would you step down, recall nineteen-fourteen -
dead at Mons when the first ghosts ached
for their women? Would you loosen
your seventy year old flies, lie
with her upon the grass, speak some words,
prove you have not grown old?
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