HOME-THOUGHTS FROM FRANCE

Wan, fragile faces of joy,

Pitiful mouths that strive

To light with smiles the place

We dream we walk alive,

To you I stretch my hands,

Hands shut in pitiless trance

In a land of ruin and woe,

The desolate land of France.

Dear faces startled and shaken,

Out of wild dust and sounds

You yearn to me, lure and sadden

My heart with futile bounds.