{"id":569,"date":"2018-11-10T20:55:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T20:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/headcases-staffs.org.uk\/?p=569"},"modified":"2018-11-10T20:57:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T20:57:50","slug":"lest-we-forget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/headcases-staffs.org.uk\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"Lest we forget….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Have you forgotten yet?…
\nFor the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
\nLike traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
\nAnd the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
\nLike clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
\nTaking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
\nBut the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game…
\nHave you forgotten yet?…
\nLook down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.<\/p>\n

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz–
\nThe nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
\nDo you remember the rats; and the stench
\nOf corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench–
\nAnd dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
\nDo you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’<\/p>\n

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack–
\nAnd the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
\nAs you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
\nDo you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
\nWith dying eyes and lolling heads–those ashen-grey
\nMasks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?<\/p>\n

Have you forgotten yet?…
\nLook up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Siegfried Sassoon<\/div>\n
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Follow @headcases2<\/a>\n