Edgar Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Counter-Attack and Other Poems. 1918.

10. The Fathers

SNUG at the club two fathers sat,

Gross, goggle-eyed, and full of chat.

One of them said: ‘My eldest lad

Writes cheery letters from Bagdad.

But Arthur’s getting all the fun

At Arras with his nine-inch gun.’

‘Yes,’ wheezed the other, ‘that’s the luck!

My boy’s quite broken-hearted, stuck

In England training all this year.

Still, if there’s truth in what we hear,

The Huns intend to ask for more

Before they bolt across the Rhine.’

I watched them toddle through the door—

These impotent old friends of mine.