Boots

(INFANTRY COLUMNS OF THE EARLIER WAR)


  We’re foot--slog--slog--slog--sloggin’ over Africa!
  Foot--foot--foot--foot--sloggin’ over Africa--
  (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!)
              There’s no discharge in the war!

  Seven--six--eleven--five--nine-an’-twenty mile to-day--
  Four--eleven--seventeen--thirty-two the day before--
  (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again!)
              There’s no discharge in the war!

  Don’t--don’t--don’t--don’t--look at what’s in front of you
  (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again);
  Men--men--men--men--men go mad with watchin’ ’em,
              An’ there’s no discharge in the war.

  Try--try--try--try--to think o’ something different--
  Oh--my--God--keep--me from goin’ lunatic!
  (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again!)
              There’s no discharge in the war.

  Count--count--count--count--the bullets in the bandoliers;
  If--your--eyes--drop--they will get atop o’ you
  (Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up and down again)--
              There’s no discharge in the war!

  We--can--stick--out--’unger, thirst, an’ weariness,
  But--not--not--not--not the chronic sight of ’em--
  Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again,
              An’ there’s no discharge in the war!

  ’Tain’t--so--bad--by--day because o’ company,
  But night--brings--long--strings o’ forty thousand million
  Boots--boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again.
              There’s no discharge in the war!

  I--’ave--marched--six--weeks in ’Ell an’ certify
  It--is--not--fire--devils dark or anything
  But boots--boots--boots, movin’ up an’ down again,
              An’ there’s no discharge in the war!