His second choice, 'Disabled’ is incredibly poignant:
Nigel Featherstone discovered WW1 poet, Wilfred Owen, when he was a writer-in-residence at the Australian Defence Force Academy researching his novel, Bodies of Men.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.
Read the full transcript at the Poetry Foundation website.
Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer whose most recent novel, Bodies of Men, was published in 2019. His other works include the story collection Joy, his debut novel Remnants, and The Beach Volcano, which is the third in an award-winning series of novellas. His short stories have appeared in numerous Australian literary journals, including Meanjin, Overland, and the Review of Australian Fiction. Nigel was commissioned to write the libretto for The Weight of Light, a contemporary song cycle that had its world premiere in 2018. He has held residencies at Varuna (Blue Mountains), Bundanon (Shoalhaven River), and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Source text: Poets of the Great War: Wilfred Owen, Faber & Faber, 2014