hippy4eva1

...Youtube, BBC iplayer…nothing new but it keeps me going :D

Sure it’s not Siegfried Sassoon , but hey, it’s my favorite since it started this goal :) -

I do not know what hour I shall fall
Only it will be day
The night, too quiet, too dark, lad
To see, to kill the winning prize

Too Many times, death I have faced
And each time, so far, I have hid
Let him pass, taken his place
Become him for someone else

Sleep, they say, khaki clad must get
Yet here I lay, avoiding rest
For what good would dreams do?
Closed eyes, soon, forever more

Two hundred, one hundred, twenty left
As one would say, your numbers up
As they would say, death won’t come, lad
Are they blind, or are we dumb?

Pessimistic, no, just logical
I am no oracle
But thousands slaughtered, each day
Lucky so far, but luck runs out

Towards the enemy, not enemy, people
People just like me, men, boys
I have been, ten times at least
Into the flames of hell, that belongs to none

Thick, brown ooze, surrounds my feet
Boots? What boots? Lost for days
Socks, useless, leaky, wet
Infected feet – a ticket home?

A handless arm, a blind line, faces scarred
Shell shock, madness, drunken minds
Fever, Tetanus, Poisoned blood
Send sore feet home, lad?

A waiting game, perhaps infected blood?
The shells will send me mad
A bayonet through the foot
Often thought of, never done

To sign my death warrant, I will not do
They would see it, self – harm
Not here by force, but kept here by
Death by friend or foe, lad?

My fate has been decided, not by me
By my government, king and law
I have but one choice – death now or later
Better to get it done

Let the family not be ashamed, of a son
Who did not do ‘his duty’
Let them glorify my memory then
And remember not this wrong done mess

Of regimented lines, all the same, no names
Just numbers, ranks and race, lad
Forced to death, by higher power
By their country, By their king

Suffering endlessly, unmoral pain
To them it�s just a game
Just in this game there are no rules, lad
And a mother�s kiss won�t heal these scars

So weak, so tired, time must be near
But crying is for cowards, lad
Morning will take my last strength
To heave up the battered wall

Lay here still, Lay here still
Enjoy the last few moments
For they will be your last, be happy
Tired of all the lies, Sarge

For in these few moments I do not care
Whether life of death will be my fate
If the time has come for me to sleep
I will go gladly to my dreams

True, all nightmares have an end
So does every man, it would seem
Mine must be ever near, but, I
No longer scared of death, but life itself.

It’s taken a while, but I think I’m finally there. I am a Pacifist. OK, so I’m no Dalhi Lama, but at least I’m on the bottom rung of the Pacifist Ladder, and I guess that’s a start, right?

I’ve realised now that there are other ways of dealing with problems, other than fighting – why fight, when you can talk and be generally nice? We proved this in WW1 didn’t we? The Germans had a football match with the English, and they were friends for a couple of hours, yet they killed each other the next day. Where’s the sense? If anyone can see it…son’t hesitate to tell me.

I’ve learnt to deal with the anger that builds up inside when I see the army, navy, RAF etc. My cousin wants to be a piolet in the RAF, my other cousin is going to army camp next week. Sure, I don’t agree with it, but I’ve developed this frame of mind where I think – sure – why not – let the people who want to fight, have their wars and kill each other. My problem comes when innocent people get involved.

I also think that someone should be tackling the propoganda that is thrust at children at such a young age. Armed Forces recruitment talks, CCF and Cadets should be banned in under 16 schools, because only those people who are aware of the other arguments, choose to challenge the idea of the adventure that a career in this sector would provide and are intellegent enough to make their own decisions.

The people these talks target are too young, the government insists, to make the decision about entering a sexual relationship, getting a morgage, buying cigarettes, or even their own deodrants (due to restricting laws on solvants Yet, apparently, it is fine for them to make the desicion to swear an oath to the queen, understand what it means and stake their life fighting unnessecerily in another country for a cause they are too young to understand; also to trust them at the trigger of dangerous and life threatening weapons.

This life is not right, and I refuse to be a part of it that makes it so. I think I can now say that I am a pacifist, and a solider for the only right cause – Peace. Thankyou and good luck. xxx