The Somme

On the 1st of July 1916 I greeted Death under a cloudless sky As German artillery tore me to shreds, nothing remained of my mortal shell but a grotesque heap of blood and flesh. I was a man, who lived who cried But my private wars I pushed aside When a greater cause, called me to arms For weeks I waited in the mud-filled trench For my time to go over the top. The Island of the Mighty has called me to serve But no man wants to die on foreign soil Like rats we ran into No man's lands Ready to break the Bosche's back But the Germans were ready our intelligence was wrong, and they mowed us down one by one Not a glorious charge, but a mad dash through Hell No structured advance, as chaos erupts Mud and blood, and brains and bones Agonizing screams and flayed limbs. Flesh torn open by barbwire fence Choking on the poison gas. Corpses to the left of me Explosions to the right Countless bodies in the field of death This is war! Not a game of chess. From heaven I watch my comrades fall For a noble cause, or a futile War? But Hell hath no fury like a Briton enraged Thanks to men like us She will never be slaves.