MESSAGES. A poem written by a WWI Soldier.

Messages.

“I cannot quite remember……

         There were five.

Dropt dead beside me in the trench

         And three

Whispered their dying messages to me…..

Back from the trenches, more dead

         Than alive,

Stone deaf and dazed, and with a broken knee

He hobbled slowly, muttering vacantly.

I cannot quite remember…..

         There were five

Dropt dead beside me in the trench

          And three

Whispered their dying messages to me…..”

Their friends were wondering

        How they thrive

Waiting a word in silence patiently…..

But what they said, or who their

         Friends may be.

I cannot quite remember…..there

         Were five

Dropt dead beside me in the trench

• And there

Whispered their dying messages to me

Poem by Wilfred Wilson Gibson  (1905-1925)

Notes: The returned soldier, losing his memory

Partially deaf and dazed haunted by the memory

Of those who whispered to him before they died.

His was maybe the first known case of PTSD.

The spelling of "Dropt" is as the poet wrote it.