Suspicious eyes and little mouths
That each reporting made
Of all the times we went to swim
Or rested in the shade.
They told of how we’d taken horse
To ride about the lea,
And how two lonely mounts were seen
Beneath a rugged tree.
They gossiped how instead of church
We went to watch the sun
Come charging over purple hills
To see the day begun,
And how we came not home again
Until that day was done.
And he and I went off to war,
Yet still their evil fed.
He never knew, not ever will,
The wretched things they said,
For he was on Corregidor,
And now the lad is dead.
TO THE MARINES
There’s only one banner says “Semper Fidelis!”
There’s only one flag we defend,
There’s only one heart and one mind and one body
In all of our battles we send.
We fought and we bled on Bataan and Corregidor,
Oh, how we held them at Wake!
And waited in vain for more men and munitions
With all the Pacific at stake.
The sleepers were many, but we were the few
Who wakened the quickest and fought,
And while readjustment and training were planned,
We did what we could, what we ought.
Our dead are at Henderson. Think you they rest?
They fight even now at our side,
Refusing to enter the realms of the blest
Until we have beaten the tide!