Nick: Test: Firefox 8.0 with Windows 7 O/S

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<p class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: center;">An old soldier’s final lament


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Upon a hill I sat and cried</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">To view this place where many died</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">One hundred years of age I’ve reached</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Yet war’s futility, still I preach</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">These fields in France a distance place</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Where death absorbed the human race</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">We gave our lives for King and Crown</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Our lives us willing to lie down</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">My chums I lost, a loss so great</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Through political and national hate</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">The guns a raging, bullets hail</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Our fleshy bodies though so frail</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">A loss so great, my tears they fall</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">As engulfed by war again embroiled</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">My mind awash with blood and gore</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">That leaves my soul so numb, yet sore</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">I miss you friends, your loss such pain</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">So many lost, yet nothing’s gained</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Parents cry, a wife’s man gone</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">A child’s lost father’s sad, sad song</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">But here I sit, remembrance left</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Lost souls and friends leave me bereft</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">We, side by side did that required</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Until our lives by death expired</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Came here we did, to foreign soil</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">To live and fight in great turmoil</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Do not forget the blood we gave</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">For freedoms cause, our land to save</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">My tears they dry, my pals at rest</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Back to the present I regress</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Alone I’m left, my chums long gone</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Just God can hear my heartfelt throng</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">It’s time to rest, my soul released</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">My old eyes tired, my mind at peace</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">One final glance, this field so red</span>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Just poppies left where thousands bled</span>


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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';" lang="SV">©</span><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Nicholas Cock (2007)</span>

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