Morning dawns,
Will Death knock on my door?
Screams of terror,
Heard all throughout,
As the yellow menace creeps in.
“Put on your masks, lads!” I heard the sergeant scream,
Death has gotten his first bounty.

All day and night,
The ground was our home.
And as the morning went to the afternoon,
Our company first experienced,
The German’s savage ways.
We had no way to combat the poison
Except wet towels,
If we could get them in time.

That afternoon,
Artillery barrages were rampant.
People flying everywhere,
And screaming for their mothers.
When it seemed like it came to a halt,
The commanding officer received orders,
“We’re going over the top,
And blast the Huns to the heavens.”

This afternoon,
Is when the French and British forces,
Went over the top
The Germans had mines and barbed wire everywhere,
With the threat of machine gunners,
And inert chlorine gas.

As my company charged to the trenches,
My comrades fell one by one,
Until I was alone.
All guns pointed at me,
I froze in fear.
And soon, all I heard was silence.

On this fateful day,
April 22, 1915,
In the Second Battle of Ypres,
Was when the Germans first used poison gas,
Violating the Hague Convention of 1899,
And causing the slaughter,
Of the Queen Victoria’s Rifles,
Company C.