One hundred years

They believe they can make you do it
They believe they can turn your mind
They believe they can tell you who to hate
They’ve done it all before

They know they can make you kill
Spill the guts of a perfect stranger
Shove a bayonet through his belly
and never question why

They’ll send you through barbed-wire
Through mortars, gas and machine-gun fire
Pay-book and a letter home
buttoned in your shirt

They know you’ll toe the line
That you’ll stay away from troublemakers
Keep your nose clean, do your job
until it’s time to die

They believe it can all be done
because they’ve done it all before

 
J. Loftus, Pte
East Lancs. Regiment
d. 16 June 1918
Aged 18 years

 
Killed in Action

 
Church and School
taught us where we fit
The Army did the rest

Flag, Faith and Crown

Conditioned to comply

Never question
the natural order:
God’s order

Ours is not to reason why

Well, fuck the order
Fuck its privilege and property
Fuck their emblems and their flags
Fuck Divine Right
Fuck The Church,
its palaces and wealth
Fuck the politicians and financiers
Fuck tradition
Fuck glory

There’s no glory in
feeding humans to machines

Only obscenity

Revulsion

Pity

Pity the dead
Pity the broken
Pity my nan, 
great-grandma,
great-granddad
Pity a modest house
in Milner Street, York
Pity the son and brother 
who died in the mud and corruption 
of early summer one hundred years ago today

 
Lutyens and Lumens:

We will burn a light
sufficiently bright
that no eyes discern
what lies behind

https://soundcloud.com/parson-thru/one-hundred-years-mp3