Impression Sketch;
Gas attack - By Jamie Mann.
With a casual turn of phrase came
words
Of a young Canadian Highlander,
whose
Experience glanced over
gallantry - thus
Being a daily occurrence across frontlines.
In the renewed fight about Ypres Belgian,
By the Canadian forces, this
Highlander
Took a hit in the head and a knee;
results
Of shrapnel flying about the turgid
air.
Slowed down by the pain, the Canadian
Kept conscious to make observations -
When suddenly gas bombs fell about -
He watched as these bombs opened up.
As in a ripened crop of seeding
flowers,
A yellow, green vapour mass floundered,
Lying like a gentle mist across
ground -
In fascination he watched as it
crept.
Any thoughts of a likely faulty bomb
went,
As the hue enveloped him - to make him
Completely blind – about him in over
ripe
Mist men began to drop down to
ground.
Coughing, choking on the acrid
effect
Of foul fumes - the Canadian
struggled
All to flounder and recover -
he crawled
Away – finding in his path a chilled
sight.
Another Canadian lay, his face in
part
Shot away by shrapnel cuts – he
pulled
And dragged him to a field ambulance
Station – later to learn the man had died.
Linking both Canadian and French
lines
A regiment of French troops suffered,
As the ‘creeping death fumes’ worked
Their choking way into soldier’s
lungs.
The fumes that overwhelmed the hold
Of the line weakened them, so that
Heavy losses resulted in the fight,
Against a looming German presence.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. A Canadian’s Heroism – Effects of
the Poison Bombs. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 28 Apr. P.8. Col.7. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11561770/Daily-Telegraph-April-28-1915.html
[Accessed: 28 April 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 28 April 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Gas #WW1Canadians
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