Neville

Briefly Mentioned in Dispatches

Briefly Mentioned in Dispatches

 

In the field,

they treated him like some kind

of young god,

because to them, he most surely

   was a god ..

And though there were so many

things that

   needed his immediate attention ..

In effect, those to

be mended or fixed and somehow,

made good enough

to remain and to fight in the field

   yet again and again ..

At which point, take note, it was

while in the thick

of it all, he was forced to leave so

many, where they

   had either fallen, or lay broken ..

And not through

any personal fatigue or the jitters,

we hasten to add

   but some administrative errors ..

And by George,

by then, he had already run out

of those dreadfully

   inadequate, fresh dressing packs ..

Those issued earlier

that same day and only a matter

of moments

before the young god himself had

   fully bled out ..

He had been the son of a carpenter

no less, yet was

   crucified in some bloody foreign field ..

And though only

briefly mentioned in dispatches shall

   never be forgot ..