The “Let Me Tell You How I Died” series is back! Continuing this week with Part II, which has seven segments about World War I. Segment two of Part II covers the horrors of charging out of the trenches against well-fortified positions, machine guns, and barbed wire. It was a tragic scenario that played out countless times across the Ypres Salient, and I saw the results with my own eyes – the thousands of white grave stones all across Belgium.
LET ME TELL YOU HOW I DIED
PART II – SEGMENT 2
Over the Top!
Over the top and give ‘em hell!
That’s the command we know so well
The watch hands tick, it’s almost time
The shells start flying and churn up the grime
I stomp my feet, my breath comes in a cloud
Will I come out on a stretcher? On my feet? In a shroud?
Behind us, our officer paces and grunts
A whistle to his lips, a shrill blast, then the guns
We spill over the trench in a screaming mass
I get snagged on the barbed wire while the others pass
Bullets go crack, I hear them whizz by
Aiming straight for me- will I now get mine?
Somehow I knew the answer was yes
I just knew that morning, like an unlucky guess
Shot right in the heart in Flanders field
Down I fall, not a soul will yield
I lay there in the mud, my breath fades away
I can’t see, I get sad, I wish I could stay
The last I see of this cruel Earth
Is gray dawn over Flanders, a new day’s birth
To Be Continued…
To Read Segment 1 of Part II, “Shelling” – click here