Three Wars

The first war, the war of 14 to 18

Begins with an uprising of adrenalin

The first war begins with the testicles descending

And desire assassinating the child that you once were

The war begins at school when you rebel against the maths teacher

Who touched you up behind his desk

And ends when you've failed your final maths exam

And had your first success with sex

The war brings new discoveries

How to make dog fights with your thyroid and pituitary glands

How the Zeppelin can fly at your command

And a generation lays down its life

When after all they've done for you

The good parents die

Resurrected as your enemy

And when the girl you've started wanting

More than all you've ever wanted says no

She is your enemy too

But you survive

And from the trenches of your newly found opinions

Quickly dug, quickly abandoned

The white flag waves for an armistice on Christmas Day

Then your voice rings round the family front room

Like a drill sergeant's in front of his platoon

Broken too soon

But you survive

The second war, the war of 39 to 45

Begins when you identify your own inner Third Reich

The second war begins with a sudden hypochondria

A visit to a doctor who waves a piece of paper and says

'This time it's just a false alarm'

The war begins at work with some intoxicating news

When the letter comes that offers you promotion

And ends when you decide to let them offer it

To younger men with more ambition

The war brings new perspectives when you suddenly see through

The politics of power which possessed you

Through all your working hours

And a generation lays down its life

When the whizz kids of the industry

Slow down and die resurrected as your enemy

And when the woman who accepted you

When all the rest rejected you goes

She is your enemy too

But you survive

And at weekends you get custody of an only child

Already adolescent and unreconciled

Who laughs at you, you and your new-found piety

And his laugh rings round your faint desire for God

Like an order from an inner firing squad

Breaking the ties of blood

But you survive

But the third war is the war that never comes

The war that never comes to everyone

Begins the second after next by accident

Ends everything except itself

The war brings nothing, the unimaginable

That the old imagine all the time

Imagine imagination dying

And a generation lays down its life

When it refuses the creation of new ways to live

And when the great invention falls apart

Ripping through the atoms of your heart

The third war will start

Which no-one survives