Benjamin John - Lift Up Your Boots Boys

"Lift Up Your Boots Boys", is the 1st of 4 songs belonging to my EP Album, "The Saga of Young Billy". A musical story following two cousins from Canterbury New Zealand, who find themselves on the Western Front in 1917. Lyrics: Just twenty years old, from the Canterbury plains Now shivering cold, in the mud and the rains The whistle is tucked, in the captain’s tight grip A prayer for the farm, leaks past my dry lip The pocket watch ticks, every second a stone Twelve thousand miles, from the place I call home My knuckles are white, on the cold Lee-Enfield Staring straight, into an infernal field. And it's over the top when the whistle blows shrill Into the belly of Passchendaele hill With the ghost of the Southern Cross over our head We charge through the iron, the mud, and the dead Oh, lift up your boots, boys, and run through the fire For the land of the fern, run thru the wire. The whistle's blasts, the sudden mad scream We scramble the ladder, awake in a dream The sky is a ceiling, of shrapnel and lead A step to the left, and my cousin falls dead The terror is blinding, it chokes out my breath A lottery drawn, in the trenches of death I run through the craters, I don’t look behind The roar of the cannons, is making me blind. And it's over the top when the whistle blows shrill Into the belly of Passchendaele hill With the ghost of the Southern Cross over our head We charge through the iron, the mud, and the dead Oh, lift up your boots, boys, and run through the fire For the land of the fern, run thru the wire. The sun starts to sink, on a butchered red plain The smoke clears away, with the incoming rain My heart is still hammering, hard in my chest The fury has stopped, and the guns are at rest I look at my hands, and I look at my boots I’m breathing, I’m standing, I pulled through the roots. But the silence is heavy, the silence is cold The roll call is read, for the brave and the bold Where is young Billy, who ran by my side? And Thomas from Southland, who fought with such pride? The relief of survival, is swallowed by grief A harvest of boys, cut down like a leaf I sit in the dugout, and weep for my mates Left out in the wire, at the dark valley's gates. The stars are coming out, over No Man's Land now Far from the sheep, and the blade of the plow I survived the big push, I survived the great fight But I’m lonely, so lonely, in the trenches tonight. Yeah, the kiwi flies low... In the mud and the snow. My music is now streaming on Spotify at; https://open.spotify.com/artist/2puKY... And at Apple Music at;   / benjamin-john   My music is also being distributed thru DistroKid. Look for Cricket's Creek Records, Benjamin John or The Field St Clan, at your Digital Music store. https://distrokid.com/dashboard/album...