Reminiscence poetry

The Royal Norfolk Regiment
(The Holy Boys) The Somme 1916

When I was young, this now seems very far away

I well remember just one bloody awful day

The mud, the blood, the constant falling rain

The faces of my poor dead pals no longer feeling pain

The fields of deepening mud, it was no place for me

I could think of many places, where I would rather be

Then orders came to send a recky party out that night

And I was picked with others; we knew we had to fight

And so we found ourselves out there and in the mud we lie

Just waiting till the star shells stopped lighting up the sky

Then in the wild confusion, I found I’d lost my way

I scrambled through the mud and wire, would I see the light of day?

The shells were falling round me, would I make it through the night.

I tumbled down a muddy slope, and I knew I was alright.

When a friendly Norfolk voice called out. Hev yew gotta loight?