A Soldier's Dream

Last night as I toasted My wet feet and roasted A small bit of beef by a similar blaze, While nought but the wheezings, The snorings, and sneezings Of comrades grouping in Dreamland's haze Disturbed the fine vision - The picture Elysian - That Fancy's weird wand conjured up to my thought, As she stood like a spooke, In a garb of blue smoke, And amid the hot embers her wonders she wrought. Adown a highway We were marching so gay An army with banners bedecked o'er and o'er With the brightest garlands Wove by fairest of hands, While a flaming bouquet stuck in each musket bore. Each triumphal arch It met on the march Was blazoned with 'Peace'; 'Welcome home each loved one'; While maid, wife, and mother Would with rapture discover And rush out to meet lover, husband, and son! I forgot all my sore toes - Nay, all of my woes - As I sprang to the threshold and clasped her dear waist; And every campaign I'd gone over again To get from those ripe lips another such taste. But as I flew to her I dropped my fine skewer, And with it my supper. I mastered my grief As the vanishing vision of joy's Elysian, But I couldn't get over the loss of the beef!