The Following Lines Were Discovered On The Dead ...  PRO

“The following lines were discovered on the dead body of an American soldier killed in action in North Africa, in 1944. They were found by a corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps and were printed in a Tunis newspaper. They found their way to Britain through the United States. A friend of the writer of these lines, who was with him when they were written (and who survived the battle in which the writer was killed) said the soldier was a thoroughly wild character, but there were tears running down his face as he wrote the lines.

Look, God, I have never spoken to you,

And now I want to say: “How do you do?”

You see, God, they told me you didn’t exist,

And I, like a fool, believed all this.

Last night, from a shell hole, I saw your sky,

And I figured then they had told me a lie.

I wonder, God, if you’d take my poor hand?

Somehow I feel you would understand.

Strange I had to come to this hellish place

Before I had time to see your face.

Wel1, I guess there isn’t much more to say:

But I’m glad, God, that I met you today

The zero hour will soon be here

But I’m not afraid; because you are near.

The signal has come, I shall soon have to go

I like you lots...