Crucifix Corner

In the cornfields speckled poppies glow in a twilight, moving shadows,

From the High Wood the reaper walks,

a harvest to be gathered,

The skylark’s solo fateful cry, the hares alert now scattered,

The pheasant raised by beating drums

in a field prepared for battle

The orders raised at crack of dawn,

the regiment made ready then stood the day beneath a sun,

impatient for their calling,

And now’s the time and now’s the hour

and now’s the chance for glory

The clarion call, the bugles send

the lancers from Crucifix Corner

The melody of pounding hooves, their harnesses a jangling,

and up the line the squadrons move

a dark parade assembling

Light horse crossing heavy ground,

trembling trepidation,

the steaming flanks the nervous hearts require no more motivation,

They thread their way cross valley floors*

through shell holes and the fallen,*

impending threats their sabres drawn*

fleeting prayers by Crucifix Corner.

Where spent men rise and the wounded cheer at the sight of their salvation,

The hopes and prayers for the breakthrough

promised this conflict will soon be over

Leaping hedges, rusting broken wire,

through a maze of desperate trenches,

all around the world explodes

as the barrage gains momentum

Shells gouge dark the golden fields,

fresh graves formed in craters;

the shrapnel’s jagged deadly thorns

tear troopers from their chargers

Through this wall of smoke and flame

this lethal iron curtain,

to gain the slope, the woods beyond,

where hunting will be certain