Rifle Butt Diplomats

I was twenty two naive and a little scared
Of the many dangers we had shared
Pity poor souls who were not spared
Dead in the ditch with shotgun wounds
Cutlass hacked the life from others
Daughter’s mothers lie raped, draped
Across bloodied beds some with no heads
Their bodies scream silently Justice!
Where is justice?
 
Police all of one ethnicity look on without pity
No point arresting when no one’s attesting
To the crimes of these awful times
So we try to make sense of it all
Answer each call
Been in a war before but nothing like this
Can't sleep can’t dismiss
The nightmare of my days
 
We become clinical, cynical
Administer justice of our own
Thump a head, break a bone
Rifle butt diplomacy it’s called
And, if you’re appalled,
Tough shit! This was the reality of it
 
We meet a man laughing in the street
Waving a cutlass, high on rum
Says man I’m glad you’ve come
I ‘it me neighbour wit me cutlass
An’ im ‘and fell off
He starts to laugh
Damn, ‘im only a coolie man
 
If we arrest him police release him in a couple of hours
But for this moment he’s ours
Big Bill’s as mad as hell
Steps forward slams him in the gut then brings down his rifle butt upon a naked foot
I hear the scream, the crack of bone
Bill hits his head he falls with a groan
“You maim a man then sneer and scoff?
Let’s hear you laugh that fucker off”
 
We’re just peace keepers so it's said
But demons live inside my head
Drink a bottle of rum every day
But those demons just won’t go away
And even now after all these years
Sometimes, like now, I’m reduced to tears
What the hell was it all for?
British Guiana ‘64