That Past July
Written by: Wilfred Mellers, Friday, February 4,2011, @ 4: 04 PM
Wives and sweethearts watch the warrior's from the piers
Drafted conscripts without any volunteers
Hairs cut low from the barber's shears
Nothing left to comfort their familiar fears
From the straits of Tiran to the steps of Algiers
The imperial army dressed fully in their battle gears
Bullets whisper lullabies in their ears
The timid hunkers down and shed silent tears
Thinking no longer it was only a one-year affair
Senses heightened surroundings I was totally aware
Bombs were bursting high in the air
Illuminating the darkness was a single flare
Silent was the night rich with foreboding
The cries in the midst were of self-loathing
The fog thickens as the atmosphere filled with apprehension
Moods swing wildly for nothing could cut the tension
Shadows creep around a stone clearance
Horrifying scream breaks the silence
Hatred filled the heart with vengeance
Cold was the steel of cruel temperance
Thin is the air for the Devil's appearance
Such fury without any guidance
Hollowed utterance in the distance
The meadow ran red without conscience
The idiocy for we was so naïve
Arms severed from shoulder to sleeve
Such depraved cruelty one could not conceive
Not even the fallen you could retrieve
From the onslaught brings no reprieve
The jungle roars in a malicious upheave
Men bow their heads and couldn't believe
Fanatics spares no one time to grieve
From the Shire to smallest Glen
No one can fix what has been broken
This is the true nature of mice and men
For fools repeat the same act all over again
The same song was also sung back then
It was frequented a thousand times ten
They are children in a filthy playpen
The crowing Rooster was truly a hen
The choir says amen
Only god knows when
Prayers clergies no longer send
When will the insanity come to an end?
The conscientious objector always asking why
The government perpetrated the biggest lie
The president had one last fish to fry
Oil since then has been in short supply
Mothers turn their heads and cry
Families bid their soldiers a fond goodbye
Their sons sent off to war to die
Hot it was that September to July
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem