Taken from my green fields, my grazing, my sunshine and play.
To unfamiliar lands overseas, strange foreign fields far away.
I joined with teams of my peers, thrust straight into a war.
We had fine strength and beauty, but now to wallow through gore.
From my lush play fields of green, to dark sad war fields of browns.
To face death, blood, destruction off in strange far away towns.
We trotted, we galloped towards fearful exploding sounds.
We pulled huge heavy cannons across cold uneven grounds.
I galloped towards oncoming gunfire along with my peers.
Through ranks and files of battles, many soldiers with tears.
Officers, cavalry or privates we carried through terrifying wartime.
Amidst mud, blood and carnage, legs thrashing through grime.
We pushed, pulled, carried, we coped with whatever they’d need.
This was so hard to do, with a war’s shortage on feed.
Our masters always treated us well, whatever their mood.
But they all suffered like us, with lack of sleep and of food.
Taken for our obedience and strength, to help our masters fight war.
With great dedication, our many hearts bled, before peace evermore.
Our magnificent flowing manes getting spattered with blood.
Many of our four-legged brothers perished, engulfed in the mud.
I galloped alongside four-legged kindred some screaming in pain.
To my left and right, my magnificent brothers, never rising again.
From green fields we were taken, to fall, in a war not of our own.
Some fell alongside their masters, many tragic hero souls sown.
Remember our strength and our wounds, but our beauty of kind.
We fought through hellish war, leaving our many siblings behind.
We all experienced trauma, agitation, war, shock and pain.
Never will our fine metal shod feet, ever feel playful again.
Remember fine beasts taken from homes, thrust into far away war.
Many fell in far foreign fields, for our masters peace evermore.
We gave our strengths and our lives, this our war’s price to pay.
Never trotting again, England’s green fields of play, our home land far away.
Mick Scarles
(SW19 expat)
