Beach Burial Softly and humbly to the Gulf of Arabs The - TopicsExpress

Beach Burial Softly and humbly to the Gulf of Arabs The convoys of dead sailors come; At night they sway & wander in the waters far under, But morning rolls them in the foam. Between the sob & clubbing of the gunfire Someone , it seems, has time for this, To pluck them from the shallows & bury them in burrows And tread the sand upon their nakedness; And each cross, the driven stake of tidewood, Bears the last signature of men, Written with such perplexity, with such bewildered pity, The words choke as they begin - Unknown seaman - the ghostly pencil Wavers and fades, the purple drips, The breath of the wet season has washed their inscriptions As blue as drowned mens lips, Dead seamen, gone in search of the same landfall, Whether as enemies they fought, Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together, Enlisted on the other front. El Alamein. - Kenneth Slessor