REMEMBER THEM    © Duane Thompson, 2003

Penned after hearing “the ode” at RSA clubs and visiting the trenches and cemetries in the old battlefields of France.

1.  I've seen wide-open places
     Seen where men have died
     Seen the fear in their faces
     Seen the places they hide
     Chorus
     Here I stand on the Western plain
     And say a sweet Amen
     The war to end all wars not in vain
     We will remember them

2.  To France they went all excited
     To thrash the Hun in a year
     To make a land fit for heroes
     But freedom's very dear

3.  The whistle blows at shell-shocked heroes
     Over the top was the cry
     Not a place for faint-hearted
     Find a trench that is dry

4.  For four long years they endured it
     The cream of manhood in their prime
     With their dreams and hopes arrested
     So many gone before their time

5.  The going down of son's departed
     The whiff of gas stings the eye
     Best a bullet in the forehead
     With no time to say goodbye