The Boy Next Door

Once there was a kind little boy,
Who grew to be adolescent.
He twisted through his youth,
And never learned a lesson.

He picked his way through this and that,
But never found his way.
Didn't know just who he was destined to be
And so he began to fade

Yet one day he wandered by a shop,
Well that is what it seemed to be
The man behind the counter said
"My lad come join with me".

He did some tests and ran some miles,
Miles he didn't think that he could do.
But those who were evaluating thought
"His heart and drive are true"

So he took a shilling and an oath
To his king and country true
To protect all that he holds dear and safe,
Can that be said of you?

Further into the future now
His homeland is now involved in war
That lad who you all know so well
That lad who lived next door.

That little boy who lived next door!
Is plowing through the mud.
His feet are crunching on the bones
Of those who before him stood.

He has killed men who did not need to die
But they would have done the same
To the powers that rule this world
He's just a pawn lost to the game.

Yet somehow he survives the horror,
And comes back to his home.
But he's not the kind boy you remember.

He is a child of war.

Think of all that child endured
And the sacrifice he made!
His friends and his companions,
Now lay in foreign graves.

Ask him to recount his story,
To tell all that he has done and why not dead.
He'll cut you out and blank you out.
because many died instead.

Take your culture and your virtue,
Take all the hatred that you store.
But every privilege that you now enjoy

Was paid for by the kid next door