Queen Bess's Uniform
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As a young man I served in the Royal Navy and was involved in the Falklands War of 1982.
When I wrote this poem in 2007, I was trying to give at least some sort of explanation to a question often asked by those who have never been in Uniform - a question that I have never adequately been able to answer - "Why?"
First published in 2007 on the South Atlantic Medal Association website and subsequently self-published in "Around My World in Eighty Poems" (Amazon KDP) in 2020.
Listen to poem:
Queen Bess's Uniform
We didn’t want the frostbite
We didn’t want the burns
We didn’t want to leave our homes
And families far astern.
We didn’t like the future
As we grimly sailed away
But we wore Queen Bess’s Uniform
And did it anyway.
We didn’t want the battle
Or the bayonets at night
We didn’t want to lose our lives
In such a distant fight
We didn’t want the air raids
Every moment of the day.
But we wore Queen Bess’s Uniform
And did it anyway.
We didn’t want a medal
Or parades in front of crowds
We didn’t go there
Just because we wanted to look proud.
If we’d known then what we know now
We might have stayed away
But we wore Queen Bess’s Uniform
And did it anyway.
Copyright © Brian K. Bilverstone | Year Posted 2022
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