The Khaki and the Beret

Marching orders through the streets
A hundred thousand long
Brown dust circling the missing road,
Black boots of soot
Laces of thread
The bugle heralded their arrival,

Women bowing to greet
Men fighting the throng
At war with the traders and their load,
Townsfolk under the yolk
With gifts of bread
Taken from their rivals,

The green of the land
Met the stain of the white
The general and his men,
Chests abreast, hand in hand
Shoulder to shoulder, side by side
And the band played,

Then the music stopped

The parade could not go on
Life ceased to exist, as Silence rained
As it was at the beginnings of the Earth
Drinking away the tuneless airs
For The Khaki and the Beret were not hand in hand
The Façade broken, The mist cleared,

They saw the broken buildings,
The ram shackle shacks,
The broken bones, The nameless wards,
They called home, The bodies without legs,
The eyeless faces, The arms with no hands,
The gloom of death, the missing children,
And the murmurs grew louder in the withering sky,
Complaints hissing like snakes in the ground,
The Stings biting and the shoulders (the ones with arms)
Glistened for the guns of freedom

Then the cavalry arrived with green caps,
The tunes filled the air, the clouds fogged,
And all was forgiven,
For the Khaki and the beret were reunited,
And all was well again.