W. Shepherd
Doodlebug
My father is dead.
My father is dead.
There were dirty bricks and cement—
on the dining-room carpet!
God, you were useless, curse you.
A shark and two planks
and a milk-churn, black
doodlebug came.
We shouldn't have given them
a funny name.
I thought my father
could kill any Germans,
we called them jerries for a joke,
but we never had a chance.
The doodlebug trod on our house, that's that.
Father lay on top of me
horribly heavy
to keep me safe. But he died, he died—
the word is safe now, it's too late
not to say it.
And under his weight I swore.
I called him the worst I could think of,
'bloody hound' I whispered.
He couldn't help his weight,
I know, I know.
They killed him and broke his things
as if he was nobody,
and I said 'curse you' at the East,
and my Spitfire was ruined,
and our dog was barking, and I was sick.
Now we shan't have our holiday.
Sometimes I wished him dead.
Curse you,
oh curse you.
Mother.
Page(s) 257-8
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