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						The Fathers by Siegfried Sassoon 
						
						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. 						 
						
						
						
						
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