Dead Man's Penny

Badge, boots, knife, straps, khaki hose Ammo pouches. Helve head cover Water bottle. Bayonet frog Small pack, Large pack. Kilt wrap over Entrenching tool head, bayonet, scabbard Dressings, iodine ampoule Flashes, greatcoat, groundsheet, helmet Dubbin, blacking, boots to bull Hussif, ID disc and jacket Gordon Highland tartan kilt Kit bag, mess tin, fork and spoon Leather jerkin, towel, waist belt Pay book, PH gas hood, bag Puttees, toothbrush, vermin powder Razor (cut-throat) Shaving brush Button stick and Tommy cooker Flannel, soap, comb, brush, foot powder Brass oil, polish, rag to rub Rifle, titles, tam o shanter Wash roll, shirt, enamel mug Mud or frost weighed down the kilt Cut the Tommy’s freezing skin Lice would breed in tartan seams Pleats on barbed wire trapping him With his short Lee Enfield Rifle Quick to load and quick to fire Corned beef, army biscuits, tea What more could a man desire? Rats and mustard gas and shrapnel Horses rotting in the trench Flooded latrines, eyeless comrades Limbs and mud and rain and stench Foot rot, shell shock, impetigo Frost and fear, the soldier’s bed One way out, to win a discharge Wounded, missing, mad or dead For the families left behind them Widows, orphans, the unborn Comes the prize, the Dead Man’s Penny For the troops cut down like corn