1916

Sixteen 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 till we stood

Ten thousand 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 ten thousand slain

And now there's nobody remembers our names

And that's how it is for a soldier