Nigel Hallworth

WE ALL OF US WENT

We all of us went

Our friends went as well

It's nice to have pals

When you're going to hell

But we didn't know that

When we changed our flat 'ats for military caps

And we soon learned to snap to attention when told

And the sergeant explained

That he now owned our souls

And we wondered then

What on earth we had done

And the world hadn't heard

Of the Somme and Verdun

And we wondered then

Are we no longer men

Can we no longer feel

Are we all to be crushed

Under the wheel

Of War?

There's some that aren't here

They're working the fields and drinking their beer

Sitting outside of an old country Inn

While their betters drink gin

Within.

Yes, there's men down the mines

In the hot wet confines

Of black tunnels, digging the coal

Then there's fierce fiery furnaces need to be fed

With iron to make shells

To make German boys dead

And machines to make bullets tipped with horrible lead

But when they've done that

They go home to bed

Lucky sods.