Jeopardy

As the daylight starts to fade -

Twisting shadows all around.

Dead soldiers on parade -

The ghosts of Porton Down.

Hidden from the public eye, "A cause for regret"

Wrote the Brigadier-General with the chemistry set.

"Can't be more specific - the matter's confidential,

Links with other incidents are just coincidental."

In jeopardy - welcome to the lion's den,

We skate on thin ice - dice with death.

While young boys drown in seas of poison -

We are the plagiarists of breath.

We go left right left right left -

They're left in the right again.

We go right left right left right -

We've no rights left anymore.

Military science picking the locks

Of a 20th Century Pandora's box.

A father tells a son,

"The army makes a man of you."

Now all vital signs are gone -

Another joins the countless few.

Mentioned in dispatches - they tell the same old story,

'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,"

They listened to him screaming -

They sat and watched him writhe,

Taking turns observing as his body burns alive.

Rifles firing at the sky -

As the "Last Post" starts to play.

Young soldiers often die -

And the truth gets filed away.

Thomas Atkins (Private 20967),

Now reports for duty -

He's been posted up to heaven.

Enlisted by conscription - a participant unwilling.

Who didn't plan to give his life for taking the "King's Shilling".

In jeopardy - welcome to the lion's den,

We skate on thin ice - dice with death,

While young boys drown in seas of poison -

We are the plagiarists of breath.