The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Thousands slog in

Silent despair

Drudging queue 

Through miles of 

Black miry clay

Under tenebrous skies

Against icy winds

Across rock-strewn

Hills and through 

Peat—soaked dales

Past silent huts roofed with

Straw and mud

Void of light

Void of life

Void of love

Oblivious to the vultures above

And the rats scurrying

Across their soft leather boots

Long line of peasant 

Men in rough tunics with

Hopeless faces 

Rivulets of ancient tears

Their dead strapped 

Horizontally on their backs 

With their cold eyes

Staring back at

What might have been