57498: Disabled

<p dir="ltr"> He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,<br> And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,<br> Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park<br> Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,<br> Voices of play and pleasure after day,<br> Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.<br> About this time Town used to swing so gay<br> When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,<br> And girl glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,---<br> In the old times, before he threw away his knees.<br> Now he will never feel again how slim<br> Girl's waists are, or how warm their subtle hands.<br> All of them touch him like some queer disease.<br> There was an artist silly for his face,<br> For it was younger than his youth, last year.<br> Now, he is old; his back will never brace;<br> He's lost his colour very far from here,<br> Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,<br> And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race<br> And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.<br> One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,<br> After the matches, carried shoulder-high.<br> It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,<br> Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,<br> That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,<br> Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts<br> He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;<br> Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.<br> Germans he scarcely thought of, all their guilt,<br> And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears<br> Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts<br> For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;<br> And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;<br> Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.<br> And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.<br> Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.<br> Only a solemn man who brought him fruits<br> Thanked him; and then enquired about his soul.<br> Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,<br> And do what things the rules consider wise,<br> And take whatever pity they may dole.<br> Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes<br> Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.<br> How cold and late it is! Why don't they come<br> And put him into bed? Why don't they come?</p>