Our Useful Dead

Let's give a minute, even two,
For servicepersons brave and true
Who gave themselves in noble cause:
To help us with our present wars.
They toddled off, their lives to yield,
And thus improve some foreign field,
Without unmannerly demand
For heroes' homes in fitter land:
Those useful dead, those glorious tools
To propagandise later fools,
Shall have their silent tribute; then
We'll start to shoot our mouths again.

Hunter Frome