[Verse 1]
Flashes of lightning merge with
incoming shells of deadly
explosives, tearing a face
off a head, leaving nothing
but a skull under helmet
revealing with each flicker
enemy soldiers dying
yet living on in your mind.
[Chorus]
Soldiers ripped apart
still running while expiring,
become ghosts before you
while fatal gases bursting
nearby their scattered
remains of legs and torsos,
release fogs of death
where they lay gone but still there.
[Verse 2]
Their helmets still on their heads
remind you that their bullets
may find you with yours still on
and also rip you apart
to leave you in this graveyard
fighting them in death’s cold grip
forever, never resting
from battles waged in trenches.
[Chorus]
Soldiers ripped apart
still running while expiring,
become ghosts before you
while fatal gases bursting
nearby their scattered
remains of legs and torsos,
release fogs of death
where they lay gone but still there.
[Verse 3]
They’re coming to take our lives:
their fallen comrades rising
from muddy craters blasted
into earth’s face once perfect
but damaged and scarred beyond
any hope of restoring
her beauty now ripped away
forever, just like nothing.
[Chorus]
Soldiers ripped apart
still running while expiring,
become ghosts before you
while fatal gases bursting
nearby their scattered
remains of legs and torsos,
release fogs of death
where they lay gone but still here.
[Outro]
Rats eat them, gnawing their bones
reducing all their features
to nothing you remember
apart from the silent laughter
escaping their gaping teeth
at the war to end all wars
and mocking all the glories
of battle now forgotten.
Lyrics, Bill Graham
