The Soldiering Life

Ambling madly all over the town
The call to arms you liken to a whisper,
I liken to a radio.
You were a brickbat, a bowery tuff, so rough
They culled you from a cartoon
Pulled out of your pantaloons.
But you,
My brother in arms,
I’d rather I’d lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm.
But you,
My bombazine doll,
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall.
But I,
I never felt so much life
Than tonight
Huddled in the trenches,
Gazing on the battle field,
Our rifles blaze away;
We blaze away.
Corporal Bradley of regiment five
In proud array standing by the bathing
Soldiers and the stevedores.
We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
Our eyes aligned, swaddled in our civies
Cradled in our dungarees.
But you,
My brother in arms,
I’d rather I’d lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm.
But you,
My bombazine doll,
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall.
But I,
I never felt so much life
Than tonight
Huddled in the trenches,
Gazing on the battle field
Our rifles blaze away;
We blaze away.
We blaze away.
We blaze away.