Resolute in hardened steel of armour
Ended lives with a slice of his sword
Fought with valour, fought with pride
Learnt to hate the crusading invasion
Erstwhile gone, in a warriors time
Cried like a babe at what he’d done
Turned his back on the Bloody Battle
Coward they labelled him, unfairly so
Ejected soul in the shell of a man
Lying in the mercy of Flanders mud
Frozen in fear in a shattered body
Extinction at dawn, no sharing of bread
Resigned in Khaki, to the fate of death.