<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Aftermath</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">With</span> steady, silent tread</p><p class="line">Bearing aloft their dead --</p><p class="line">One at the foot, one at the head</p><p class="line">The stretcher-bearers go;</p><p class="line">Out of the dark they come</p><p class="line">Stumbling and staggering, some</p><p class="line">Bearing, maybe, a chum,</p><p class="line">Pair after pair they go.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Vague, silhouetted ghosts,</p><p class="line">Remnants of martyr'd hosts;</p><p class="line">Think on the blatant toasts</p><p class="line">Raised to "King Glory"!</p><p class="line">Tread lightly, that's the way,</p><p class="line">Wake not the dead, lest they</p><p class="line">Have other words to say</p><p class="line">Of the same story!</p></div><p class="byline">-- D. Howard Tripp.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> (Lance-Corporal, London Irish Rifles, British Expeditionary Force.)</p></body></html> · Great War