| |
| AFTER the burial-parties leave | |
| And the baffled kites have fled; | |
| The wise hyænas come out at eve | |
| To take account of our dead. | |
| |
| How he died and why he died | 5 |
| Troubles them not a whit. | |
| They snout the bushes and stones aside | |
| And dig till they come to it. | |
| |
| They are only resolute they shall eat | |
| That they and their mates may thrive, | 10 |
| And they know that the dead are safer meat | |
| Than the weakest thing alive. | |
| |
| (For a goat may butt, and a worm may sting, | |
| And a child will sometimes stand; | |
| But a poor dead soldier of the King | 15 |
| Can never lift a hand.) | |
| |
| They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt | |
| Until their tushes white | |
| Take good hold in the army shirt, | |
| And tug the corpse to light, | 20 |
| |
| And the pitiful face is shewn again | |
| For an instant ere they close; | |
| But it is not discovered to living men— | |
| Only to God and to those | |
| |
| Who, being soulless, are free from shame, | 25 |
| Whatever meat they may find. | |
| Nor do they defile the dead man’s name— | |
| That is reserved for his kind. | |
| |
