God, grant them a dry earth for pillow with flowers and sweet smelling grass to make up
for all those muddy trenches.Give them continuous music preferably by Vivaldi; so they
may purge their ears of those thunderous cannons and shells exploding.
Give them chicken and roast beef all they can eat so they'll soon forget their canned
rations.
Grant them also light and bright-colored clothes since they died in their heavy, wet
khaki uniforms.
Give them lots of rest . . . they need it: they were so exhausted when they expired.
And don't forget to replace their severed limbs which they left behind on the
battlefield. They'll need to experience anew a sense of wholeness.
Let the skies be blue for them; and the air pure for all the smoke and gas their lungs
suffocated from.
Speak to them softly. They were barked at quite enough by petty officers and zealous
sergeants.
Lastly, give them love -yes, eternal love, O Lord; some of them even died so others
could go on loving.
(By (Rev.) Adrien Arsenault, University of Prince Edward Island) |
