© roy ballard 2012



Soldiers on parade

Some preferred the piping men

and some preferred the drums

which have a yellow tiger skin,

arousing as it comes

the call to skip beside the drum

with tum-te-tum and tum-te-tum.

I preferred the whirling sticks,

the polished leather gear,

the tiger skin, the braided coat,

the splendid volunteer

whose beating drum aroused our cheers

and tum-te-tum for mother’s fears. 

 

War came to the piping men

and to the drums came war

which flayed them like a tiger skin

with cruel tooth and claw;

with tum-te-tum and tum-te-tum

it took them all to Kingdom Come.