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Birgelen Rebuilt


There's a golf course now
where once the aerials stood
wide open to the skies but
encircled by the same wood.
The clubhouse stands
on the old Ops Block site,
where we struggled to stay
awake many a long night.
Troop Sarn't Major prowling.
tiredness overcome by fear.
as we logged the morse
pinging away in each ear.

Yes the old girl's still there
but much bigger now I think
with its  large dining room
that overlooks the links.
Once she almost became one
very expensive funeral pyre
when controlled brush burning
became uncontrolled fire
which we fought for an hour
with anything to hand
then back to the beer leaving
some very charred land.

There's a large patch of grass
in place of the parade square
enough to give any drill pig
a nervous nightmare.
I can't picture the Wrackery,
any of the other billet blocks,
and I'm wandering around
in a slight state of shock.
I can't find the cookhouse,
cinema or Corporal's mess;
memory has let me down
there I have to sadly confess.

Yes the old girl's still there
but much bigger now I think
with its  large dining room
that overlooks the links.
She almost became one
very expensive funeral pyre
when controlled brush burning
became uncontrolled fire
which we fought for an hour
with anything to hand
then back to the beer leaving
behind some very charred land

The old fence is there still,
but the guardroom has gone;
she served her purpose but
now the world has moved on.
Soon she'll disappear
at a fast increasing rate
swallowed up under
a modern housing estate.
I hope she's not forgotten
though not needed anymore.
for she played her part well
in the heat of the cold war.







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