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Splinters from the Devil's Tower
We were young enough
to keep death at bay
but I'm sure old man Rammage
never knew the way we worked it
The wrecking crew
always drew their breakfast
from Katama
gazing misty eyed over the straits
musing on last night's women
before the foreman complained
and we remembered
to fire up the chainsaws
It was always a late start
there was me, the English guy,
Sergie and the boys
sweating their summer break
burning twenty one layers
of army paint
Cutting out windows
trashing down doors
as we swarmed through
the doomed barracks
hearing it groan like a beached whale
dust choking our grubby bandannas
Ghosts of men long departed
shipped for Balaclava or Alamein
watched from out on the parade ground
where they once square-bashed
the Empire's mores
Breathing their death throes
bayonets fixed with a sigh
the grunt for King and country
now tuned in to the last rites
of Led Zep and a coup de grace
delivered by Rambo
spaced out on acid in a gap year
I almost lost a finger
in my own campaign
when I overstretched my grip
the bare bones of the roof
made it easy to slip
but Sergie grabbed me
before I did
How we laughed
in the Barrelhouse that night
young and blind to the irony within
to keep death at bay
but I'm sure old man Rammage
never knew the way we worked it
The wrecking crew
always drew their breakfast
from Katama
gazing misty eyed over the straits
musing on last night's women
before the foreman complained
and we remembered
to fire up the chainsaws
It was always a late start
there was me, the English guy,
Sergie and the boys
sweating their summer break
burning twenty one layers
of army paint
Cutting out windows
trashing down doors
as we swarmed through
the doomed barracks
hearing it groan like a beached whale
dust choking our grubby bandannas
Ghosts of men long departed
shipped for Balaclava or Alamein
watched from out on the parade ground
where they once square-bashed
the Empire's mores
Breathing their death throes
bayonets fixed with a sigh
the grunt for King and country
now tuned in to the last rites
of Led Zep and a coup de grace
delivered by Rambo
spaced out on acid in a gap year
I almost lost a finger
in my own campaign
when I overstretched my grip
the bare bones of the roof
made it easy to slip
but Sergie grabbed me
before I did
How we laughed
in the Barrelhouse that night
young and blind to the irony within
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