A Day In The Desert

• Lachlan Miles, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2014

I remember the day in the desert, the day all hell broke loose,
It seemed like the desert itself wanted to swallow us whole,
Then the Desert Fox himself, bugs in his beard,
He hadn’t had a shower now for months.
But he pounded us into the dirt like hell on earth,
And when the dusk fell the damn Brits landed and tried to help us break out,
But the Pommies just couldn’t handle the heat,
And already fell back by dawn.
We helped ourselves for weeks.
I remember it all, but I remember most of all,
That special day in the desert, the day that all hell broke loose,
When Jerry and Johnny marched down the quay,
The roar of guns and the flash of the sun
Confusion as he pounded us across El Alamein.
I remember that day in the desert, I remember it all.