Night and the Road.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 907, 7 December 1917, Page 6

Night and the Road.

(For the N.Z. Free Lance by a Soldier at the Front.) Aight, and the road, the , darknessglows ' With distant flares that rise. andi die, ' •- The flickering gun-flare comes and goes, The low gun-thunder stirs the sky, And xn their ghostly measured rows Xiie naked trees go gliding by. My horse's hoofs beat out a tune, . Sootliing and soft upon the around liie shrill wind wails a dreary'rune, ' The wild rain-music swells the soxmd, 7 And harshly to the ~ hidden moon Rise the crazed machine-guns round'. Lights flash, hoarse voices , shout for • room, . Borne on the swift and icy blast; Into the lamplight: from the gloom ' The "trooping, phantoms follow-fast ' As, white-faced "from the gates of doom, . The armed battalions hurry past. I.ride with Death on every side though I feel his presence near ri? e the pleasure and the pride To truly say, "I have no fear," Because where'er I chance to ride • I know that you are near me, dear. 3/912. France, 1917. . , '