A mournful and poetic tale of wartime death and release
Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.
- Dreamers, Siegfried Sassoon (1918)
Read Sprigs and Kindling Volume 6 here.
Editor-In-Chief
Amanda Mullins
Layout Artists
Alexander Thomas Guy Coursolle
Aaron Burkett
Ryan Yokle
Chief Copy Editor
Rebecca Hall
Deputy Editor
J. Carter
Editing/Layout
Bjorn Ove Asperem , Darren Brockes,
Kim Dalton, Dorian T. Hawkins,
Robert Merkel, Gabriel Robinson,
Clint Smith
Disclaimer
Sprigs and Kindling is not affiliated
with Gauntlet Publishing or Jason
Cordova but is published with
permission.
AI Statement
Sprigs and Kindling is
against the use of
generative AI in creative
works.
If you think we have accidentally
included AI-generated content please
contact us at sprigsandkindling
@gmail.com.
Image Credits
Cover Page Illustration: Rapidpunches
Cover Masthead: Mike Martens
Unless noted otherwise, images are
provided under a no attribution
licence from vecteezy.com, free licence
from unsplash.com, and public
domain (creative commons.org.)