The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range -- Roger Waters

Guest poem sent in by Anyesha Mookherjee

(Poem #1684) The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range You have a natural tendency To squeeze off a shot You're good fun at parties You wear the right masks You're old but you still Like a laugh in the locker room You can't abide change And you're home on the range You opened the suitcase Behind the old workings To show off the magnum You deafened the canyon A comfort a friend Only upstaged in the end By the Uzi machine gun Does the recoil remind you Remind you of sex Old man what the hell you gonna kill next Old timer, who you gonna kill next I looked over Jordan and what did I see Saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris I swam in your pools And lay under your palm trees I looked in the eyes of the Indian Who lay on the Federal Building steps And through the range finder over the hill I saw the front line boys popping their pills Sick of the mess they find on their desert stage And the bravery of being out of range Yeah the question is vexed Old man what the hell you gonna kill next Old timer who you gonna kill next Hey bartender, over here Two more shots And two more beers Sir, turn up the TV sound The war has started on the ground Just love those laser guided bombs They're really great for righting wrongs You hit the target, win the game From bars 3,000 miles away 3,000 miles away We play the game With the bravery of being out of range We zap and maim With the bravery of being out of range We strafe the train With the bravery of being out of range We gain terrain With the bravery of being out of range We play the game With the bravery of being out of range -- Roger Waters

Note: From the album "Amused to Death"

A friend of mine once send me the lyrics to this song after a heated
discusssion on modern day war. It has remained with me and it seems more
relevant now than it did six years back when I read it for the first time.
The vivid imagery of modern war which is fought with an invisible enemy
juxtaposed with the complex psychology of those who fight it is truly
moving.

Anyesha

[Links]

Biography:
  http://www.ingsoc.com/waters/info/biography.html (I like the disclaimer!)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Waters