The Crucible

In the hours before the fire rained down
And turned the evening into day
All was quiet, all was so serene
And all our thoughts were far away
With our loved ones, with our families
A future in a better world
With the hope that this would all make sense
Our hearts jumped when the flags unfurled
Not a breeze, not a breath, not a sigh
All so tense, all so scared, all stand-by

We were young immortal patriots
Proudly marching off to war
In our mind's eye we were heroes all
We couldn't see what lay in store
We all saw ourselves on battlefields
Proud, with tombstones in our eyes
Not in this muddy hell of hopelessness
Pawns just waiting 'round to die
Not a breeze, not a breath, not a sigh
All so tense, all so scared, all stand-by

What a waste, what an awful aftertaste: a travesty embraced
Soldiers cry but still wait around to die, believers in the biggest lie

The never-ending awe-inspiring endless nameless grind
The smell, the mud, the hope you never thought you'd have to find
The endless drone of shelling every day and every night
And knowing only more wrong ever could make this be right

You keep your head down and pray to god and hope he hears your voice
Through drumfire roaring that makes it feel like your head will explode
You see your brother disintegrate and rot before your eyes
You dream of home and you wish you were back there all safe and dry

The barrage it left us deaf and blind
I never heard the whistle blow
But I followed where the others lead
Alive with patriotic glow
In a dream machine guns opened up
Mowing like the devil's scythe
I saw my peers, my generation fall
In that mud I watched them die
Not a breeze, not a breath, just a sigh
All so tense, all so scared, all would die
To hope, to pray, to wait around to die

No breeze, no life, no breath
All gone, all gone, all dead