Wasted Man
Oh, what beauteous dawn
brushed orange pink chiffon
paints such charm on torture land
flaunts her promise warrior man
What dawn forswears in myriad hue
over fields of bottomless muddy glue
for mine and many wretched soul
trembling fearful in this hole
Canned gutslop breakfast choke it down
chin up boys we'll pass around
that soured whiskey donkey piss
our bitter remedy saved for this
Now scramble the shitslick duckboard bridge
toward our targets trenchless ridge
through cesspools muck and rotting corpses
of what were gallant men and horses
Then race the barrage all exposed
as all around us shells explode
once lovely lads now human fodder
pure hearts and souls and flesh for slaughter
Felled drowning in this groaning pit
I've nothing more to give or get
dear God please have a cigarette
and something sweet packed in my kit
Ascend to angels bugle band
my bonny boy, my handsome man
released forever mothers hand
fair soldier boy, brave wasted man
Oh, what beauteous bloodred sunset taunts
all promise lost to warrior man
whose shattered, headless torso haunts
the dreams we share for freedom land.
"Please Remember Us"...
synonymous with the misery of grinding attrition warfare is the battle of Passchendaele where 140,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives in autumn 1917 fighting for 5 miles of mud and swampy marsh in a ratio for both sides of roughly 2 inches gained per dead soldier...my inspiration for 'Wasted Man'
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