In the Land of the Afghans beyond the Khyber Pass - A Poem

In the land of the Afghans
beyond the Khyber Pass;
The bones of many men cry out
beneath the desert sands.

From the March to Kabul
in eighteen thirty eight;
The soldiers of the British Raj
received a gruesome fate.

Macnaghten as their leader
was slaughtered like a lamb;
His fate was sealed by the treachery
Of the ruler Akbar Khan.

They took his head and marched it through
the streets of old Kabul;
His trunk was hung in the bazaar
A fate both grim and cruel.

They stormed the house of Burnes
and killed him with his staff;
Felled by jezails as lethal as
The snowy mountain pass.

It fell to William Elphinstone
to take up the British cause,
And so began the great retreat
For which their lives were lost!

The Afghan army massacred
Over sixteen thousand men;
And despite the Khan’s assurances
They murdered women in the end.

The blood of Cavagnari
was spilled by Yaqub Khan;
His Treaty of Gandamak
Could not save him in the end;

Defended nobly to the last
By the Queen’s Own Corps of Guides;
When warned he said: “Keep up your heart—
Dogs that bark don't bite!”

The soldiers of the Russians
besieged Afghanistan;
They fought the Mujahedeen and set
the stage for the Taliban.

And now brave America
joins her brothers in the grave;
The proud Marines fought to free a land
No army on earth could save,

And when the dust was settled
around the Abbey gate;
Their souls cried out,
"Get out brave men before it's too late!"