1916

16 years old when I went to the war To fight for a land fit for heroes God on my side, and a gun in my hand Chasing my days down to zero And I marched and I fought and I bled And I died and I never did get any older But I knew at the time that a year in the line Was a long enough life for a soldier We all volunteered And we wrote down our names And we added two years to our ages Eager for life and ahead of the game Ready for history's pages And we brawled and we fought And we whored 'til we stood 10,000 shoulder to shoulder A thirst for the Hun We were food for the gun And that's what you are when you're soldiers I heard my friend cry And he sank to his knees, coughing blood As he screamed for his mother And I fell by his side And that's how we died Clinging like kids to each other And I lay in the mud And the guts and the blood And I wept as his body grew colder And I called for my mother And she never came Though it wasn't my fault And I wasn't to blame The day not half over And 10,000 slain, and now There's nobody remembers our names And that's how it is for a soldier