a dead boche - the war poetry society lyrics lyrics

to you who’d read my songs of war
and only hear of blood and fame
i’ll say (you’ve heard it said before)
”war’s h+ll!” and if you doubt the same
today i found in mametz wood
a certain cure for l+st of blood:

where, propped against a shattered trunk
in a great mess of things unclean
sat a dead boche; he scowled and stunk
with clothes and face a sodden green
big+bellied, spectacled, crop+haired
dribbling black blood from nose and beard