Hellmand 2010 Poem by roy may

The air is thick with dust and flame, who started this? Who is to blame?
Shells and rockets rake the field yet neither side is like to yield
There’s no retreat, no going back, just blindly forward in attack
Men are wounded. Men lose limbs. And those who die we praise with hymns
Or stand to hear the lesson read, yet nothings changed, THESE MEN ARE DEAD

We strive to bring their bodies back in boxes draped in union jack
They’ve paid the price and given all but their pay is stopped from when they fall
These fathers’ lovers’ brothers sons have fallen to each other’s guns
Do politicians really care, they might if they were fighting there
They praise all those who serve our nation yet try to cut their compensation

It’s never those whom nations lead get stuck in hell to die or bleed
They just cajole our sons and brothers to go to war and murder others
Both sides’ young men fall for the trick. Greed, religion, politic
That foreign Johnny turban clad is really just an Afghan lad
Who with religious hatred filled joined the fray was quickly killed

Likewise the lad in kaki gear is just a lad from over here.
Courageous, patriotic, smart he volunteers to play his part
He leaves behind his child and wife and goes abroad to lose his life
The Commons reads his name aloud saying that we should be proud
Should we be proud when we’re to blame

NO WE SHOULD HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME