CORREGIDOR AND CALVARY

Corregidor and Calvary, And Christ again is crucified, And all the lovely lads who died Are His this day in Paradise. They hung upon a wretched cross, We watched them day by day, And wondered how such men could live Who hung in such a way, Who hung in thorns of screeching steel And had no time to pray. We knew that soon the lads must die, And yet they battled death Unmindful of his awful wings And black, consuming breath, Unmindful when he roared at them Or whispered what he saith. For shattered men will die in pain, And shaken men will weep, And there are things which blast the blood And through the body creep, And men will not lie down at night Afeared that they will sleep. Afeared they would too deeply sleep, That battered hearts would burst; And though each knew that he must die, The dawn must beckon first, And each must feel again the grip Of loneliness and thirst. For none would die alone, apart, By twos and twelves they fell, And if a man could walk he worked, He loaded shot and shell, For none would die alone, apart, Within a narrow cell. Within a narrow cell at last All men someday must lie, But while their blood was in the heart And light within the eye, They would not leave the stand they took Beneath the open sky. They would not leave us, watching them, Examples of defeat, That when we come to look on death, And though our ranks deplete, Somehow we must think back to them, The way they met it, meet!

Alas, Love, I would thou couldst as well defende thy selfe as thou canst offende others —SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

When he and I had met I knew The way he smiled at me That we’d become the best of pals Two guys could ever be. For night and day he filled my thoughts, I talked of only him, But there were eyes which watched us both, Suspicious, cold, and dim. Suspicious eyes and little mouths That each reporting made Of all the times we went to swim Or rested in the shade. They told of how we’d taken horse To ride about the lea, And how two lonely mounts were seen Beneath a rugged tree. They gossiped how instead of church We went to watch the sun Come charging over purple hills To see the day begun, And how we came not home again Until that day was done. And he and I went off to war, Yet still their evil fed. He never knew, not ever will, The wretched things they said, For he was on Corregidor, And now the lad is dead.