Some Of My Fellow Soldiers Look At Photos (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

Some Of My Fellow Soldiers Look At Photos (Free Verse Sonnet)



Some of my fellow soldiers look at photos of their girlfriends,
two read from their Bibles which are opened at the psalms,
some are cleaning their assault-rifles and I my LMG,
a radio is tuned to Springbok Radio and plays requests,
several parcels from home and girlfriends are opened,
some soldiers stand around a private with a larger box
from which he takes sticks of salty tasty Kudu-biltong
and he throws several of them to each one of us,
the day's action from which we did return to camp is forgotten,
as there are smiles on almost every young sunburnt face
but away in the corner a private takes a blue letter from an envelope,
I see the kind of pain that only heartache does bring
and its time for the lights to be turned out,
sleep evades me while in the darkness I hear people snore.

[Poet's note: A LMG refers to a light machine gun.]

© Gert Strydom

Thursday, April 12, 2018
Topic(s) of this poem: war memories
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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom

Johannesburg, South Africa
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