Hour Four – Write a poem set a hundred years ago, or a hundred years from now.

The Wooden Football

 

The boys played ball, that’s what I’ve heard

They kicked it around whenever they could

Boots caked in mud, and sometimes blood

The football was a good ball, carved out of wood.

 

They clambered out of trenches, forgetting their wenches

Pushed and shoved and joshed around

While guards watched over, shouted to take cover

When bullets began to rain on the ground

 

These teenage boys, the rifles their toys

Out to save country and king

They didn’t grumble, or weep or crumble

As they hummed the tunes they used to sing

 

Of victory marches and enemy lines

Of bringing the villain to his knees

Of the green, green grass of their home so fine

The English roses and buzzing bees.

 

And as they came out that night to play

What they saw was two wooden balls, not one.

One was theirs, they knew it well

The other, kicked over barbed wires, just for fun.