WAR LORDS

Do you think we could meet in No Man’s Land and talk about a truce?

You in your trench, me in mine, isn’t any use

I’ve been waving this white flag, you see, ever since this war began

Not because I’m giving in but just because I can

I bet that you cannot remember what started this whole thing

Don’t say it’s cause I assassinated your archduke or your king

Sure, I had new weapons I was anxious for to try

And you were claiming colonies until I made you cry

You didn’t want to talk about it; you just kicked me in the nuts

So I got my retaliation by blowing out your children’s guts

We bred a race to sacrifice for all our lovers’ tiffs

Neutral nations lose their reason if their babies get  a sniff

Forcing twenty thousand men to fight for fifty yards

You used all your nursing skills pulling out the shrapnel shards

Running at machine gun fire with only bayonets fixed

Diving into shell holes where, the dead and living mixed

When I wouldn’t play your game, you smothered me with gas

You said that it enhanced my looks when I wore that stupid mask

So I rolled out a barbed wire fence and tanks that looked like ships

Then we ordered more men forward and earned ourselves some extra pips

Someday we’ll look back at this and wonder what it all was for

Historians will shake their heads and say it was a needless war

You and I will be long dead and buried by each other’s side

Far away from poppy fields where our countless children died