His hands once worked a mine in the lowlands
They now clutch the scarred stock of a loaded bolt-action
Twenty-six year old eyes that have seen a hundred men die
Can't blink away the horrors he's seen on the line
The artillery brackets the trenchlines around him
Cries of gas and fire can't pierce the ring of ears deafened
He volunteered on a promise that it would all mean something
And still he clings to that hope even as the Earth's trembling
So we stand
(So we fall...)
For a nation that calls us to its defense
(For the fortunes and hubris of prideful old men)
So we fight!
(So we die...)
To shield our families from the oncoming dark
(For doddering, lying fools wasting our lives on their lark)
At 4pm, the guns cease their bombardment
And out of the smoke storm hordes of armed men
With his fellows he sights and fires as true as he can
Aiming to hold to the very last man
Shrapnel and blood spatter the sandbags around him
Flamethrowers leave bones and uniforms smoldering
Fixed bayonets run through broken men's hearts
As their line bends and cracks and crumbles apart
So we stand
(So we fall...)
For a nation that calls us to its defense
(For the fortunes and hubris of prideful old men)
So we fight!
(So we die...)
To shield our families from the oncoming dark
(For doddering, lying fools wasting our lives on their lark)
They need help but there's no one coming
The colonel in the rear must be warned what's in the offing
The soldier volunteers to carry a message in hand
Back across the hellscape of no man's land
He sets off at a run, soft hat pulled low
The lip of the second trench seems a distant stone's throw
Bullets spray mud and whip past his ears
But in his heart is a courage that stamps down his fear
So we stand
(So we fall...)
For a nation that calls us to its defense
(For the fortunes and hubris of prideful old men)
So we fight!
(So we die...)
To shield our families from the oncoming dark
(For doddering, lying fools wasting our lives on their lark)
He was found half-buried and shattered in a crater
Arm upstretched, a desperate message in his fingers
They'll never find the rest of his poor dear friends
All boys from a town whose best hopes met their ends
One life or a dozen or a hundred meant nothing
To a war burning through such millions like kindling
While a crumpled slip of paper was never received
His loss was heard clearly by his bereaved
Soon tired empires collapsed and the guns grew subdued
In front of his old mine his town raised a statue
They remembered his valor but too soon forgot
The true reasons this great war had on this world been wrought