[?7hLate Arrivals

"Lafayette, we have come!"
-American Troops, on arriving in France on D-Day, 1944

The rain fell still in driving sheets,
Each whipped before the bitter wind.
And as the cock the first light greets
We march against the press of time.

The field of combat lies ahead
Obscured yet by the fog and pall.
All doubting thoughts my mind have fled
We ready for our final charge.

Below us now the battle runs
Both sides complexly interlocked
Yet on the field of grays and greens and duns
A single fact stands clear.

For those who wear our red and blue
Despite their brave heroic stand
Are in sheer numbers far the few
Sorely pressedand beaten back.

Their desperate message issued hence
Well nigh on a fortnight ago.
They cried for aid, cared not from whence,
And lacking it they said they'd fall.

In desperate fighting they held on
Almost sure all chance was lost.
Without our aid, all hope was gone
A snowflake melting under the sun.

So sound the brazen trumpets' call!
Commander, shout the charge!
Forward, massed, pressing ranks
Advancing as a flood
The time we lost with our delay
We now repay in blood.

-Crow
-HAiL