Out of the puddle of his mind there poured
A sickly trickle of obscenities,
Till some chance word of mine waked into life
Within his heart half-frozen memories:

And then with shining eyes he talked of home,
His wife and their one bairn, a little lass,
And all her darling ways; but suddenly
I saw the radiance from his blue eyes pass

As, slouching up to us, another chum
Cursed the lancejack with casual blasphemies;
And once again from that slack mouth outpoured
A sickly trickle of obscenities.