There's a man walking round the island with a snake cane He picked it up in Thailand from a hurricane And you know he's not gonna go there He's been one time too long
Now all the gods are gone (Though the game is gone) The younger boys are drowning in a shallow sea The night belongs to snipers in palm trees And their sabres flashed like lightning In the charge of the last brigade They must have been afraid
Soldiers have their sorrow The wretched have their rage Pray for the aged it's the dawn of another age Of another age Of another age Of another age
The blood running down the blackboard on a blank (?) screen (in a thin stream?) The convicts shake their cages of a bad dream And they'll coach you in the classroom that it cannot happen here But it has happened here I remember nothing that I memorized (The cockroach cops are crawling on a battle ground) I got my education from a black eye (The shields are in the shadows, it's a college town) And they'll teach you law and order If you dare to raise your hand Spare the glove and spoil the man Soldiers have their sorrow The wretched have their rage Pray for the aged It's the dawn of another age Of another age Of another age
Thomas Paine and Jesse James are old friends And Robin Hood is riding on the road again We were born in a revolution and we died in a wasted war It's gone that way before The dogs are chasing chicken bones across the lawn If that was an election, I'm a Viet Cong So I pledge allegiance against the flag and the (fall, flaw, cloth?) for which it stands I'll raise raze it if I can (Pledge allegiance to the land) Soldier have their sorrow The wretched have their rage Pray for the aged It's the dawn of another age Of another age Of another age Of another age Of another age