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Title: Our Job
Author: Everard Jack Appleton [
More Titles by Appleton]
You mustn't hate the enemy--that wastes a lot of "pep"--
The Colonel passed the word around the training camp to-day.
The Captain says with modern war we gotta all catch step;
"Cut out the rough-necked rage and talk, and don't you think or say:
"'Pirates, rapists, murderers; poisoners and lying thieves;
Super-vandals, run amuck--black devils quoting sermons;
This world was mostly Heaven-made, our Chaplain, he believes;
But Hell itself conceived and spawned the Military Germans!
"The enemy is good at killing kids, and old folks, too;
Torpedoing hospital ships and blowin' up our plants;
But cogitatin' on their line of wicked things won't do;
We'll never hate 'em off the map--just give the guns a chance!"
So we don't go in for loathin', and with anger we don't burn;
We're drillin', and we're diggin', and we're workin' all the while;
To put 'er in the target is the trick we hafter learn--
And ev'ry man's a better shot when he can shoot--and smile!
The folks at home will spend their time a-broodin' over all
The nasty devils do and on the details they can dwell;
It's up to us to learn this game, and then--when comes the call--
Pump lead into the enemy--and send him back to hell.
[The end]
Everard Jack Appleton's poem: Our Job
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