Non-Combatants

NEVER of us be said That we reluctant stood As sullen children, and refused to dance To the keen pipe that sounds across the fields of France. Though shrill the note and wild, Though hard the steps and slow, The dancing floor defiled, The measure full of woe, And dread The solemn figure that the dancers tread, We faltered not. Of us, this word shall not be said. Never of us be said We had no war to wage, Because our womanhood, Because the weight of age, Held us in servitude. None sees us fight, Yet we in the long night Battle to give release To all whom we must send to seek and die for peace. When they have gone, we in a twilit place Meet Terror face to face,