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At Smedley Butler's Grave (poem)

By W. D. Ehrhart

Oaklands Cemetery
West Chester, PA

So here I am with Smedley Butler,
major general, Maverick Marine,
Old Gimlet Eye, the Stormy Petrel,
two-time Medal of Honor winner;
me a sergeant with a Purple Heart
for doing nothing but getting hit.
(Don't kid yourself, there's nothing
heroic in that; just bad luck.)

Yet here I am at Butler's grave. But why?
Well, we were both Marines, there's that.
And he graduated in 1898 from the school
where I taught decades later for 18 years.
And he wrote a book called War Is a Racket
in which he concluded, "To Hell with War!"
How can you not love the guy for that?