War

From the Evening Star, August 29, 1914. By Philander Johnson.

Said the man who molds the cannon to the man who builds the ship,
“I am giving you a cargo for a strange and fearful trip.
And if you float or if you sink out yonder in the sea
I’ll keep on molding cannon; and it’s all the same to me.”

Said the man who builds the ship unto the cannon molder grim,
“I’ll take your cannon for a sail where lads all smart and trim
Will aim and fire true. And if your cannon shattered be,
I’ll keep on with my building; and it’s all the same to me.”

“For every gun that cracks we’ll mold a bigger, stouter gun.
For every ship that sinks we’ll put afloat a better one.
The lads that come and go—the women weep to lose them thus!
But we make our ships and cannon, and it’s all the same to us.”