|
The Unknown Soldier We were soldiers, through and through Who did what we were told to do We could not ever question why We could only kill or die This stump where my arm should be I got it in the war, you see? While I was in the trenches A bomb knocked out my senses And took my arm to God knew where But no one said that war was fair I've come to be known as an amputee... Bombs make for poor removal surgery (strategy) There were many like me in the fight On both sides who thought they were in the right And lost an arm, or leg, or even a head... Who died before the enemy was dead. Now that you know who I am I'll tell you of one we'll call Sam Today Sam is a pile of bones In the tomb of the unknowns A lady came after many years And asked for help, with solemn tears, of science and the government wanting permission for disinterment Her children had grown without a dad And she was forced to give all she had to be a good mother, and father too in times when only one or the other would do So, head held high with fine composure She was determined for some closure And boldly knocked on bureaucrats' doors Just to be pointed down other corridors Months would pass, she got her way the bones were dug for DNA You see, the woman thought that our friend Sam Could possibly be her missing man. And like in a paternity test DNA would lay the matter to rest The strands of which, like a cryptogram Hold the secret code of poor old Sam Cells were extracted from many a bone that made up the remains of the Unknown And then some cells from the children's hair were taken and processed to compare Four science teams were then assigned Each to see what it could find Cells from the legs, arms, chest and skull were divided up among them all Cells from the chest where the heart's concealed Were checked and they revealed That, indeed, with very little doubt Sam's identity was found out The scientists smiled at their success, and felt they could tell the lady "yes" Science had made them satisfied Her husband's bones were identified But their pride was very short to live For another team came back negative When comparing the data they found with dismay The leg bone and hair had unmatched DNA Then came the skull team, negative also And the arm team was soon to follow So that one of the four showed positive and three of the four showed negative The chest team's tempers were unwinding and they hotly defended their finding that they were right and the others wrong but the other teams' fuses were also not long So instead of looking for testing faults the weary teams let fly insults and they might have blackened eyes and busted jaws If one hadn't seen what he thought he saw For one doctor's mouth went wide and swore He saw our Sam who died in war Turn over on the table where he lay... But then these men had a very long day This distraction tore down all defenses and brought the doctors to their senses For these were men of brains, not brawn And if they could, they'd think 'til dawn They decided they'd check each bone against the others to make sure that they were truly brothers And to their shock and utter chagrin They found no bone had a DNA twin The arm bones, the leg bones, the chest and the head Weren't related, except through being dead Someone had buried these parts together bones that were not birds of a feather These skeletal remains had appeared intact but they were not, and as a matter of fact Sam's bones were the parts of many men... And my right arm was one of them! AMW July 1999 |
|