RobertWService.Com

European Conscript

I am not patriotic worth a damn;
Most governments I think a bloody mess.
My country I detest, yet here I am,
Entrapped and togged up in her warrior dress;
Supposed to be a killer, more or less.

The swine who rule us claim they have the right
To take our lives and use them at their need;
To force us for invested funds to fight,
To sacrifice us to imperial greed:
In name of nationality to bleed.

Hell! I believe my life is mine alone,
My property to do with as I will.
No Power shall seize it and no State shall own
Me mind and soul, and send me forth to kill:
No so-called enemy my blood will spill.

I do not love my native land of fog
And cold and damp and wind and ruthless rain,
Where I have played the part of underdog,
Trying three times to emigrate - in vain:
To break away from poverty and pain.

My life's my own, I say; none have the right
To rive it from me, barter it for death.
I know I'm trapped, but if in foreign fight
I fall in "glory" - canting shibboleth!
I'll curse my country with my dying breath.