History Parade

We left the Scout hut shortly after dark,
to ambush regulars acting as invaders.

Later, there was to be a demonstration
of the use of a primitive stun grenade,

designed dramatically to improve morale
in the under-gunned Home Guard.

A Dunkirk veteran CSM from Caterham
had been driven down in a staff car to show us

the correct application of this novel weapon,
bakelite casing, with one small metal pin.

After patrolling in the silent dark,
failing to intercept our good-humoured opponents,

we assembled among the prostrate sarsen stones
beyond the Lacket, for a quiet smoke.

Then we fell in to watch the CSM,
who threw the stun grenade, followed it in

and, as it exploded, fell, killed by the pin.
He lay there, still, between two sarsen stones.

It was absolutely stunning. No one spoke.
I thought of the burial of Sir John Moore,

and tried to remember what had not been worth
the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier.