Somme

The Leeds, Bradford and Barnsley Pals
Sheffield City and Grimsby Chums
Harrogate and Tenth West Yorkshire
heard the call of the pipes and drums

All lads who shared a pint together
the butcher’s boy and cobbler’s son
went off to see the sights of France
from a trench beside the River Somme

Last evening in England it was boasts and toasts
poems, songs and innocent prayers
a night made warm, breathless and palpitant
by excited young lovers bidding farewell

That morning sunrise in the trench
he picked a poppy and placed it ‘hind his ear;
a conversation with a well fed rat
who stared at him, laughed and showed no fear

till the whistle sounded
the pipes wailed, skirling aye
for all they were worth
as they went over the top

the drinking chums from Barnsley and Grimsby
from Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield City
into the guns which cut them down
like mowing poppies on a pitch at home

And a cry went up from all the shire
from towns and villages which lost their lads
for friends who drank and died together
on a bloody field in dirt and mire.

No one living now recalls them
Harrogate Pals and Tenth West Yorkshire
but on this day all England remembers
in national memory, a river in France.

They will bring flowers to the graves today
flowers from where they were born and bred
flowers from their English gardens
passing “Winged Victory” where children play.

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