I was not alive during World War two

Even dad was a mere lad in the blitz.

Living a stone's throw from Grimsby docks

Bombed nightly by 'The Luftwaffes Herr Fritz.'

 

I remember reading about the Yangtze incident,

In an old National Geographic edition

As well as the wars in Kenya and Korea

The horrors of the Indian Partition

 

Little more than just a toddler

Back in October sixty-two

During the Cuban standoff crisis

Russia in an American stew

 

In my youth, whilst still at school,

They tutored me on Oppenheimer's plan

Completely unfathomable actions

a tragedy for ancient Japan

 

We saw the aftermath in documentaries.

The burning flesh, loss of sight

Congenital malformations of birth

How could 'Enola Gay' have been right

 

My military service began.

As the Vietnam war ended,

But Irish republican dissidents

Showed me and Britain were undefended.

 

Remembering service training,

Watching horrific films of nuclear war.

We all worried in silent foreboding

Do we have futures any more?

 

Trained hard, practised our drills,

We prayed that hell held firm. Bombs undropped.

We acted cold-war charades,

Just in case our crazy world popped

 

We were all so frightened,

They petrified us

We were young, with one hope

That tomorrow would be more than dust

 

Despots in control of buttons

With more bombs than it would take

To blow this world to smithereens

A radioactive dust cloud in a thermonuclear wake.

 

I have shocking nightmares even today.

Of just what might have been

We live now in mutual peace together

Let’s hope nothing comes between

 

I have, for many long years, felt

Comfort, whilst snuggled in my bed

Recent events have clearly shown

You can't wholly escape the dread

 

The Madmen, the politicians

Argue against each other’s cause

But it's always the little people who suffer

The futility of these inevitable wars.

 

This conflict with Ukraine has clearly shown

That Mother Russia intends not to be,

Content inflicting a new cold war, but

Intent on World War Three