(My father at 87 remembers his father at 17)

 

It wisnae men they sent tae war.

It wis boys like the Bantams

– wee men named efter

sma’ chickens,

or later a jeep, a bike, a camera.

That needy, fir soldiers, they drapped height

Restriction, so small men came to war.

As a prisoner, my faither’s weight dropped

And years later, the shrapnel frae the Somme

Shot oot, a wee jewel hidden in his right airm.