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"First letter I got from my old man was all about how proud he was that I'm here and how we have this duty to, you know, I don't fucking know, whatever . . . and it really made me feel great. Shit, my father hardly said good morning to me before. Well, I been here eight months now, and when I get home I'm gonna have all I can do to keep from killing that cocksucker." - Michael Herr, Dispatches
Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, And took the fire with him, and a knife. And as they sojourned both of them together, Issac, the first-born spake and said, My Father, Behold the preparations, the fire and iron, But where the lamb for this burnt offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, And builded parapets and trenches there. And stretched forth the knife to slay his son. When lo! an angel called him out of heaven, Saying, Lay not a hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him. Behold, A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns; Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
The Fathers by Siegfried Sassoon
SNUG at the club two fathers sat, Gross, goggle-eyed, and full of chat. One of them said: ‘My eldest lad Writes cheery letters from Bagdad. But Arthur’s getting all the fun At Arras with his nine-inch gun.’ ‘Yes,’ wheezed the other, ‘that’s the luck! My boy’s quite broken-hearted, stuck In England training all this year. Still, if there’s truth in what we hear, 1 The Huns intend to ask for more Before they bolt across the Rhine.’ I watched them toddle through the door— These impotent old friends of mine.
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