Disabled
By Wilfred Owen

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He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
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And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
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Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
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Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
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Voices of play and pleasure after day,
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Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.


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About this time Town used to swing so gay
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When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees,
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And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,—
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In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
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Now he will never feel again how slim
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Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
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All of them touch him like some queer disease.


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There was an artist silly for his face,
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For it was younger than his youth, last year.
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Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
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He's lost his colour very far from here,
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Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
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And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
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And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.


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One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
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After the matches carried shoulder-high.
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It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
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He thought he'd better join. He wonders why.
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Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.
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That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
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Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,
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He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
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Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.
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Germans he scarcely thought of, all their guilt,
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And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
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Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
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For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
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And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
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Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
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And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

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Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
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Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
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Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.


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Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
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And do what things the rules consider wise,
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And take whatever pity they may dole.
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Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
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Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
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How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
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And put him into bed? Why don't they come?