(22 November 1915)
Four bombardiers were on their way
To a small village in the rear
Layers of dust had turned them grey
They’d joined up earlier that year
They quietly spoke of other years
And gazed at the vast plain ahead
A shell coughed near the bombardiers
Not one so much as turned his head
Their talk was all of yesterday
Tomorrow seemed a waste of breath
They held to their ascetic way
This constant discipline of death
Guillaume Apollinaire & Velimir Khlebnikov: Birds, Beasts and a World Made New was published by Pushkin Press on 15 August.
