We won the war!
We won the war!
Their flag we tore!
We evened the score!
The bugler toots!
The hooter hoots!
We destroyed the Other!
Avenged sad mother!
We ruined their crops!
We severed their tops!
It’s all so great!
We feel so fine!
Congratulate!
We’re nearly divine!
The hooter hoots!
The bugler toots!
We’re all so brave!
We screamed our rave!
We killed them dead!
Left others unfed!
Our deeds were bold.
We left them cold.
The soldiers who died.
And civilians who tried
But failed to find a good place to hide.
So what else could we do but kill them too?
And, now, we come home at last to find
The promised dividend of victory, it seems,
Was not at all a peace of mind.
Instead a sleep of nightmare dreams.
The hell they say is war doesn’t seem to end.
It seems instead to seep around every bend.
I would listen again to that big brass band
I would heed again the call throughout the land.
But the bugles of the brass got rusted.
And the leaders whom we trusted
Turned out to be but bubbles busted.
I will dance away my last regret.
But my legs are no legs. I mustn’t forget.
Still we killed them in bunches so that’s a great thing.
That at least is something we can sing
About. At least, you see, we won the war.
So, there’s that. Those of us still alive
Can say definitely and with no hesitation
That our nation benefited because we won the war.
Don’t you see? We won the war.
And though the rich amassed more riches
And the land got bombed to muddy ditches.
We won the war.
We won the war.
Most definitely.
Don’t you see?
We won the war.
Our finest hour
When we called for power
Over truth so we could make the richest richer.
And he could brag about the gold.
Even if we shiver in the cold.
Even if we wear but worn-out tatter
It doesn’t matter
Because so does our enemy
Who suffers even worse than we
We who won the victory
And we have twice as many moldy crusts of bread
As we would have had if we’d lost instead.
So
We won the war.
We won the war..
So…?
——————-
How the Nightingale Learned to Sing
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