Time for a Poem

WILLIAM BLACK
Co. B - 55th Illinois



This sure ain't what I thought


Bein' a soldier was gonna be.



Sure I knew there'd be lots a marchin'


But I'd followed the plow for years.



I even knew the food wouldn't be the best,


But ma had died when I was just ten.



Sleepin' in tents wouldn't be too bad


As long as there were blankets to keep me warm.



I knew there'd be shootin' and killin'.



Shootin' and killin' -


That's what a soldier's s'posed to do.



I was prepared for death


To be at my stoop any time.



But I sure didn't think,


Back in Chicago when I joined up,


That I'd ever be told, by my own Colonel,


To kill one of our own men


Simply because he went home


To be with his wife


When she buried their baby boy

.

by Frank Crawford