---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Coleman, Alvin
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 22
number: 4
published: 1919-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Coleman, Alvin, "We’ll Soon Be Back," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 4 (February 1919): 312–313.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2204unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2204unse
start_page: 312
end_page: 313
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2204unse
  publication_year: 1919
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# We’ll Soon Be Back

<!-- page:312 -->

We'll Soonfbe Back

     Like many others, these boys were disappointed at not getting "over
there," and they voiced their feelings as follows:

                  We'll soon be back from this terrible war,
                  Covered with honors and medals galore.
                  Back from the roar and crash and din
                  Of the battles in France we never were in!
                  Back from doing our duties well
                                        —
                  Regular heroes we are like         !

                  We'll soon be back on the job again,
                  Out of the trenches and cold and rain,
                  Out of fierce encounters with the Huns!
                  Where we used our mouths instead of guns!
                  Back from doing our wonderful stunt
                  Of doing "Squads East" on the Louisville front!
                  Yes, we'll soon be back from doing our bit,
                  Proving our courage and showing our grit!

<!-- page:313 -->

HOME POEMS                                    313


               Playing our part in the awful jam,
               By forcing meal tickets on Uncle Sam.
               In fact there is nothing could possibly mar
               Our wonderful record in winning the war!
               We know what we'll face when we're home once more
               How they'll "josh" and "kid" us about "our" war,
               And say we were soldiers of peaceful ways!
               Oh! we'll hear all of that to the end of our days.
               We can only reply to the guys who "kid,"
               By golly we tried and that's more than you did!
          -Alva Coleman and his "Bunkie" in the Wasatch Wave, Heber, Utah