The Weight of a Rifle - poem

 

The Weight of a Rifle

 

I had quite forgotten the weight of a rifle.

 

-C. S. Lewis to his brother, 11 August 1940, upon joining the Home Guard

 

Despite the cold and the morning mist

Some of the fellows reported wild boars

Up against the tree line across the fields

So with my old rifle I took a walk

 

I found their feral diggings and rootings 

And stood and listened to the autumn winds

Sighing in the tree tops, but there were no hogs

Robert Frost could have made something of it

 

I marched for miles in my merry youth

Laughing and singing by squad and company

M-14 rifles slung over our skinny shoulders

Our government thought this was a good idea

 

I found some bright-red holly-berries this morning

Which was more fun than shooting at hogs

 

Or at other men

Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. W. H. Lewis, Harvest / HBJ, San Diego, 1966

Feral Hogs Attack and Kill a Woman in Texas - The New York Times (nytimes.com)