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Jessie Pope - A Humble Appeal
Work rating: Low

(The Blue Cross League, 58 Victoria Street, London, S.W., is in need of funds.) 

SHE was a pretty, nicely mannered mare, 
The children`s pet, the master`s pride and care, 
Until a man in khaki came one day, 
Looked at her teeth, and hurried her away. 

With other horses packed into a train 
She hungered for her master`s voice in vain; 
And later, led `twixt planks that scare and slip, 
They slung her, terrified, on board a ship. 

Next came, where thumps and throbbing filled the air, 
Her first experience of mal de mare; 
And when that oscillating trip was done 
They hitched her up in traces to a gun. 

She worked and pulled and sweated with the best; 
A stranger now her glossy coat caressed  
Till flashing thunderstorms came bursting round 
And spitting leaden hail bestrewed the ground. 

With quivering limbs, and silky ears laid back, 
She feels a shock succeed a sharper crack, 
And, whinnying her pitiful surprise, 
Staggers and falls, and tries in vain to rise. 

Alone, forsaken, on a foreign field 
What moral does this little record yield ? 
Who tends the wounded horses in the war ? 
Well that is what the Blue Cross League is for.
Source
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