10

 

     We ventured in for ten minutes,

Our little circle of Globe Trotters and SAS Sigs,

But there was no life,

     Just acrid tobacco smoke

And stale alcohol,

But the Rebel MC was having none of it;

A Newcastle Pub dead as a dodo

And nowhere to go-go!

 

     So we pissed what we could

And let fly a dance,

And before we left the whole

Pub was in trance; dancing from tables

And chairs and benches,

And each English maiden wanting

A be 264 wenches,

 

Then ten reasons of misfortune came knocking in haste,

     Making mockery of men now battling a hate,

 

Ten reasons the man took his life for his own,

Ten reasons the Middle East sent only

Casualties home,

     Each of them wise for kingdom come

To be crowned, each one mental wearing

Only a frown.

 

1. The exchange of combats for pyjamas on wards,
2. The jumping of aeroplanes for dribbling on meds
3. The cost of a wallet now keeping them poor
4. The colleagues you danced now laying down stone dead
5. The taking of risks and not giving a shit, for the casualty now old breathing his last
6. For the wonder you were for a predictable coward
7. For the civilian to laugh and scowl in envy
8. For your children deformed for the injections you took
9. To the corps who discharged you not giving a fuck
10. You were gold to the core, the fittest the wisest, the best at all that you did,

Now authority laughs and has you hid,

And no-one forgives, no-one understands the lust for life

Having left,

      Just the colleagues who remember how you

Inspired a dance,

And there ain’t no chance to bring

Back the youngster who was marvelled

And respected by most,

Because mental ill health turns soldiers to ghosts,

And my,

     How the conceited laugh

At the service you gave,

Never admitting – for them

You were braver than brave.

 

Michael J Waite 28th August 2015.

Dedicated to the many who shone lightbeams of life – one never knew from where came.