I wrote this back in 2016. It was inspired by the following video, published by Vice News, of some people failing to proceed. It stood out for the stupid pointless hopelessness of it all. I imagined that their experience of war amounted to watching Fury on DVD and attending a training camp where they had to crawl under some barbed wire. I have no idea what happened to them in the end.
In the film the soldiers hugged
the ground until the tank rolled by
and then they rolled behind the tank
and stood up to advance
Tracers flew like laser blasts
but the Sherman tanks held fast
popping heads and taking names
the baddies didn't stand a chance
Now, being dim (and let's be fair, he had no choice,
no chance, no choice, from birth 'til death;
a life on rails laid out for him
by people who were just as dim)
he took from this that he should roll,
that rolling was the thing, and that
the tank was just a prop, and
rolling was the thing
and that was how he died,
with shot-out legs and bloodied lens
the camera came to rest.
the ground until the tank rolled by
and then they rolled behind the tank
and stood up to advance
Tracers flew like laser blasts
but the Sherman tanks held fast
popping heads and taking names
the baddies didn't stand a chance
Now, being dim (and let's be fair, he had no choice,
no chance, no choice, from birth 'til death;
a life on rails laid out for him
by people who were just as dim)
he took from this that he should roll,
that rolling was the thing, and that
the tank was just a prop, and
rolling was the thing
and that was how he died,
with shot-out legs and bloodied lens
the camera came to rest.
