Run Boy

Run Boy! "Your country needs you!" The recruitment poster claimed, I listened to my fathers words; "Run boy, and sign your name" Like in my dreams I was a soldier With a badge that bore the thistle, We marched to the fife and drums To a tune I would proudly whistle. I was seventeen and a little naive, They gave me a real gun to shoot, A wooden box of silver bullets And spit and polish for my boots. I knew how to shine my buttons, To eat beans out a rusty can, And to kill time in the trenches But not how to kill another man. I learned how to load my rifle And how to clean off the mud, Prepared for the sweat and tears But not for the sight of blood. I stood beside my comrades, Friends in a rain drenched hell, One by one they stood so proud And one by one they fell. I was scared when the order came, We were told to 'go over the top', "Run boy, run boy, run boy!" I kept running and couldn't stop. I was told about the barbed wire, And those flares that lit the sky, But I could only remember home And thinking I was going to die. The bullet that had my name on Whistled before it hit my head, The same tune that kept me alive I will sing now I am dead. The fife and drums are now silent, Tell Scotland that I was brave, Tell my father I ran as far as I could Away from my unmarked grave.