When they ask "Why do you march?"

[RogerV]

Why Do We Still March?

Why do you still march old man

With medals on your chest?

Why do you still grieve old man

For those friends you laid to rest?

Why do your eyes gleam old man

When you hear those bugles blow

Tell me why you cry old man

For those days long ago.

I'll tell you why I march, young man

With medals on my chest

I'll tell you why I grieve young man

For those friends I laid to rest

Through misty folds of gossamer silk

Come visions of distant times

When boys of very tender age

Marched forth to distant climes

So young they were, with blossom cheeks

Their eyes shone bright and clear

Scant knowledge of this sinful world

Thought nought of hate or fear

Their laughter rang through strange bare rooms

Hardships, they were soon to know

All they knew, was beyond their shores

Was a deadly vicious foe

They left behind their boring life

They had nothing much to give

so they laid their lives on the line

so you, young man, would live

With bayonet, gun and blossom cheeks

The innocence of their youth

They stood alone, with fearsome pride

And perceived the awful truth

The truth they learnt, they had to die

(it's not easy when you're young)

the gods of war had chosen them

and stilled their youthful tongues

The guns they crashed, the Stukas dived

Shell tore their flesh asunder

I smelt their blood, watched them die

The war lords claimed their plunder

And as these warrior gods passed by

They smiled at their obscene death

Gone were their apple-blossom cheeks

Scorched by napalm burning breath!

We buried them in a blanket shroud

Their young flesh scorched and blacken

A communal grave newly gouged

In the blood-stained earth

And you ask me why I march! Young man

I march to remind you all

But for those apple-blossom youths

You would never have known freedom, at all.

Bill Ridley

[centurion]

It appears to have the structure of Southey's "An Old Man's Comforts" of 1798 much copied and sometimes parodied (especially by Lewis Carroll). - is this correct?

[squirrel]

Pretty recent too with the mention of Stukas and Napalm in the same verse..........