Warsaw (1939)

 Warsaw

I was in Warsaw when the first bomb fell;

I was in Warsaw when the Terror came -

Havoc and horror, famine, fear and flame,

Blasting from loveliness a living hell.

Barring the station towered a sentinel;

Trainward I battled, blind escape my aim.

ENGLAND! I cried. He kindled at the name:

With lion-leap he haled me. . . . All was well.

ENGLAND! they cried for aid, and cried in vain.

Vain was their valour, emptily they cried.

Bleeding, they saw their Cry crucified. . . .

O splendid soldier, by the last lone train,

To-day would you flame forth to fray me place?

Or - would you curse and spit into my face?

September, 1939 Robert W. Service