Soldier Boy

Marching once again under a myriad of stars

Young men to the cause where all is fair in love and war

But rules are rules, and no mercy can be shown

In the fields of the departed where history is born

In all the lines and prose of war and its ways

The words that speak the loudest are the ones that you would never say

From Arras to the Somme and the hell of Passchendaele

For ninety years and counting since you told your bloody tale

Hey, soldier boy, is your conscience clear?

Is your mind on the road from hell and back to the one you love so dear?

I know you live in constant fear

And that's just the way the world seems through roses and tears

When the battle cries no more, and the martyr's work is done

Did the voices in your head tell you to walk along the pathway

Of the righteous and the good, and leave it all behind

In the fields of the departed with the remnants of your mind?

Through roses and tears

Through roses and tears

Roses and tears

So saddle up the horses and tighten up the reins

Face the bitter winds of tyranny and shame

We blind ourselves with grace and favors of the heart

So our minds can hide away in the darkness of our past

Roses and tears