A Picture Shows a Thousand Wounds

We Are Making a New World (1918), collection of the Imperial War Museum, London. Artist: Paul Nash

A Picture Shows a Thousand Wounds

I am a messenger showing true facts
The landscape of youth being hit hard
I will report back to the world real acts

I will delve in the ground and find the cracks
How shells and the bombs made the world scarred
I am a messenger showing true facts

While a white sun shimmers through muddy tracks
Shining on ruddy clouds in a green graveyard
I will report back to the world real acts

Shattered trees, earth a mass of shell attacks
Lifeless leafless trees haunt a landscape tarred
I am a messenger showing the true facts

The sun will rise refusing to retract
Holes can be seen refusing to be barred
I will report back to the world the real acts

Enabling gaps in the light to react
With news of fall men lying in ground charred.
I am a messenger showing the world the true facts
I will report back to the world the real acts

James Mallin