A helmet for my pillow,
A poncho for my bed,
My rifle rests across my chest-
The stars swing overhead.
The whisper of the kunai,
The murmur of the sea,
The sighing palm and night so calm
Betray no enemy.
Hear!, river bank so silent
You men who sleep around
That foreign scream across the stream-
Up! Fire at the sound!
Sweeping over the sandpit
That blocks the Tenaru
With Banzai-boast a mushroomed host
Vows to destroy our few.
Into you holes and gunpits!
Kill them with rifles and knives!
Feed them with lead until they are dead-
And widowed are their wives.
Sons of the mothers who gave you
Honor and gift of birth,
Strike with the knife till blood and life
Run out upon the earth.
Marines, keep faith with your glory
Keep to your trembling hole.
Intruder feel of Nippon steel
Can’t penetrate you soul.
Closing, they charge all howling
Their breasts all targets large.
The gun must shake, the bullets make
A slaughter of the charge.
Red are the flashing tracers,
Yellow the bursting shells.
Hoarse is the cry of men who die
Shrill are the woundeds’ yells.
By Robert Leckie
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