ramblings and things

1,300,817 poems read

Crossed Lines

I answered the phone
without really thinking,
station farm, duty pig
who's that squeaking:
I suddenly thought
brown trouser time
as the Colonel's voice
came down the line,

who's that man?
What's your game.
Answer me now,
number rank name.
Did the silly old B
think i'd fall for that.
I hung up the phone
and ended our chat.

When he called back
I let it ring a while
before answering in
a full military style.
i could hear the doubt
creep across his mind
as i sat there
swearing blind

I knew nothing about
that previous call.
This was the first time
the phone had rung at all.
Perhaps it was the switch
with a wrong or crossed line,
repeating the extension
that currently was mine.

i dealt with his query with
full use of the honorific sir
thought i'd convinced him
I'd not really been there
at the time of that
strange misrouted call
though i'm not quite sure
he believed any of it at all.

But an officer is an officer
and he'll never accuse
a ranker of a crime if he's
given an original excuse.
.For when push comes to shove
we were all the same
when up at the sharp end
in the barmy army game.


Comment On This Poem --- Vote for this poem
Crossed Lines