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The Ballad Of A.N.Other.
He enlisted as a boy, endured the beasting and the bull,
Grew up very quickly, did the course to the full.
They moulded and changed him into a killing machine,
Taught him the double tap as being efficient and clean.
He pulled time in Iraq, there and back in Afghanistan
And,somewhere along the line, killed his first man.
Special Forces hard, muscles in his spit
For so many years he did more than his bit.
They gave him his papers, an M.O.D trimming down
So he's on train back to half remembered home town.
Six months for, they said, an unprovoked attack;
Some unthinking civvie had poked him in the back.
No squaddie chats, jawing late on into the night,
Chuntering and whinging, putting the world to right.
The tried him on counseling, didn't understand his need,
So he floated on through life on hard liquor and speed.
He wandered around the town as if he wasn't there
And fixed on his face that thousand yard stare,
The Regiment carried his box when he was finally gone,
And beyond the cemetery wall the world just carried on.
Just the story of a nobody, who did his duty with pride,
The type of bloke in action you'd want by your side.
His stone carried rank and name, bare details no more,
No mention that he was discarded after a politician's war.
Grew up very quickly, did the course to the full.
They moulded and changed him into a killing machine,
Taught him the double tap as being efficient and clean.
He pulled time in Iraq, there and back in Afghanistan
And,somewhere along the line, killed his first man.
Special Forces hard, muscles in his spit
For so many years he did more than his bit.
They gave him his papers, an M.O.D trimming down
So he's on train back to half remembered home town.
Six months for, they said, an unprovoked attack;
Some unthinking civvie had poked him in the back.
No squaddie chats, jawing late on into the night,
Chuntering and whinging, putting the world to right.
The tried him on counseling, didn't understand his need,
So he floated on through life on hard liquor and speed.
He wandered around the town as if he wasn't there
And fixed on his face that thousand yard stare,
The Regiment carried his box when he was finally gone,
And beyond the cemetery wall the world just carried on.
Just the story of a nobody, who did his duty with pride,
The type of bloke in action you'd want by your side.
His stone carried rank and name, bare details no more,
No mention that he was discarded after a politician's war.
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The Ballad Of A.N.Other.
The Ballad Of A.N.Other.