TRAVELLING

They talked of old campaigns, nineteen-fourteen

And Mons and watery Yser, nineteen-fifteen

And Neuve Chapelle,‘ sixteen,‘ seventeen,‘ eighteen

And after. And they grumbled, leaving home,

Then talked of nineteen-nineteen, nineteen-twenty

And after.

Their thoughts wandered, leaving home

Among familiar places and known years;

Anticipating in the river, of time

Rocks, rapids, shallows, idle glazing pools

Mirroring their dark dreams of heaven and earth.

— And then they parted, one to Chatham, one

To Africa, Constantinople one,

One to Cologne; and all to an unknown year,

Nineteen-nineteen perhaps, or another year.