War - Ww1 - Forty Thousand Horsemen Poem by Paul Warren

Forty Thousand horsemen in the desert sands
The Desert Column on the march in the war demands
To keep the Middle East possessions and the Suez Canal
Against the Ottoman Empire after Gallipoli's defeat now

Some wore the brass A for the Anzac Cove shore
They rode the Whaler horses in the Great War
For revenge was part of the story in their history
For those mates left on the fatal shore story

Chauvel commanded this mounted infantry column
Across the desert sands to battle the Turks so solemn
There was Romani and Jerusalem through the Conquerors gate
As a legend for Australia in the Gaza and Beersheba charges so great

When you think of their legend you can hear the bridles jingling along
And the Australian voices singing Waltzing Matilda as their song
And the Light Horse became the soldiers in kangaroo feathers display
In the Australian military history book the symbol for us all we say.

© Paul Warren Poetry