Bantam
(My father at 87 remembers his father at 17)
It wisnae men they sent tae war.
It wis boys like the Bantams
– wee men named efter
sma’ chickens,
or later a jeep, a bike, a camera.
That needy, fir soldiers, they drapped height
Restriction, so small men came to war.
As a prisoner, my faither’s weight dropped
And years later, the shrapnel frae the Somme
Shot oot, a wee jewel hidden in his right airm.