The Unknown Soldier

This is one of Roy’s anti-war songs. Always in war it is the poor civilians and children who suffer most.

Someone has his/her finger on the button that launches the drone strike or sets off the ballistic missile. We harness technology to do our dirty business. We take our stupid belligerence and tribal conflict into space. Is there no hope for the future?

The Unknown Soldier – Roy Harper

I am an old soldier
I’ve been in the wars
Backwards and forwards,
Creeping on all fours

And I travel the pulses
Unseen and alone
Dogfights in the cosmos
Feeling the unknown

And I laugh in my sleep
Sitting in the gutter
Picking dog-ends from the deep

I am an old soldier
I see in your face
Times repeating
Uniforms in space

Looking forward to Doomsday
Telepathy wars
Dogma daydreams
Imaginary doors

And I laugh in my sleep
Sitting in the gutter
Picking dog-ends from the deep

But in the night a little boy is dreaming mysteries
And looking after laughter with his sister climbing trees
And somewhere there’s a button and a silent satellite
And a bastard who would press it and an everlasting night

I’d hunt him like a tiger and I’d tear him to a shred
There’s nowhere you can hide man
Me and the kids we’d feed you to the dead

And I cry in my sleep
For all the hungry children
And the unbelieving sheep.