1916

16 years old when I went to the war

To fight for a land fit for heroes

God on my side and a gun in my hand

Chasing my days down to zero

And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,

And I never did get any older,

But I knew at the time that a year in the line

Was a long enough life for a soldier.

We all volunteered and we wrote down our names,

And we added two years to our ages

Eager for life and ahead of the game

Ready for history's pages

And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood

Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder

A thirst for the hun we were food for the gun

And that's what you are when you're soldiers.

I heard my friend cry and he sank to his knees,

Coughing blood as he screemed for his mother

And I fell by his side and that's how we died,

Clinging like kids to each other

And I lay in the mud, an' the guts and the blood,

And I wept as his body grew colder

And I called for my mother and she never came

Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame

The day not half over and tenthousand slain,

And now there's nobody remembers our names,

And that's how it is for a soldier.