(05/23/1943) Creed of the Commando

Creed of the Commando

I am the Commando

I have neither Father, nor Mother

Nor Sister, nor Brother

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

(litany)

We are the varied Legions of the Doomed

By shadow light of night we storm the shore

And break, to spume the beach with bloody gore

Against the emplaced cannon, and the roar

Of strafing aircraft sluicing down the loomed

Embroidered traceries of flaming shell

Whose cry the monstrous bat of nether hell

Would answer as the mating call, and dwell

Among the new cut dead not yet entombed.

 

I am the Commando

My Father burned in lakes of flaming oil

Blown from a tanker’s crushed, torpedoed bowels

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

(litany)

We are the varied Legions of the Damned

Out of the night our barges loom and spill

The implements of war; the shadows kill

With lightening stab, then fade into the still

Black dawn that rings the Fortress, and the jammed

Troop-transport planes have sown their deadly capes

While bombers dive, with slitted mouth that gapes

To drip its poison on the beast who apes

The upright form of Man. We are the damned.

 

I am the Commando

My Mother’s bruised and mangled body bore

The mute and silent testament of rape

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

(litany)

We are the varied legions of the Doomed

By shadow light, etc.

 

I am the Commando

My Sister’s body lies in bloody shreds

Where bombs have torn it limb from shattered limb

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

(litany)

We are the varied Legions of the Damned

Out of the night, etc.

 

I am the Commando

In some mass grave my only Brother keeps good company

With those long crucified upon the Iron Cross

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

(litany)

We are the varied legions of the Doomed

By shadow light, etc.

 

I am the Commando

I have neither Father, nor Mother

Nor Sister, nor Brother

I was born to kill —

And death is my destiny, for I am expendable.

 

Amen (chorus)

Grady L. McMurtry, U.S.Army
5/23/1943 e.v.

Note: Originally published in Thelema Lodge Calendar, May 1995.