The Damned Poem by Len Webster

News from home is very scarce
all hell and heaven lie in grains of knowledge
we glean from passing conversations.

In our little camp surrounded by woods
we a few interlopers from the city
find our meagre happiness.

In the evening after eating little food
we sit and rest in icy tents.
Sometimes we sing all the old songs
we once learnt in showers
at English grammar schools.

Louis our leader is stony-faced,
his eyes are staring, his mind is keen,
he has our trust.
All our lives depend on him,
human and bearing over all.

Each night we face toward the stars
and sighing consistently we pray
that we shall be judges of our own fate.


(First published in the author's collection 'Behind the Painted Veil', Outposts Publications, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey,1972, p.8)