A Time for Change

Down the dusty wagon trail

I went my lonely way,

As I passed by Chapron Lake

All dappled by the breeze,

I heard the Grey Loan calling

His note full of wild unease.

Sometimes in my fancy,

I think I hear it still.

As I reached the canyon,

I heard a coyote calling.

Beneath the rising moon,

This was of sounds familiar

To be replaced too soon

By the voice of the drill sergeant

And the bugle's brassy tune.

Besides the changes at the lake

There were others in this world.

A character named Adolph

Had the flags of war unfurled.

But the things he wished

Were not the wish of people happy and free,

And amongst the birds who disliked his words

Were a lot of tramps like me.

I had nothing to lose and all to gain

If this Hasper got squelched in the fight. 

His antics they did not appeal

To my ideas of right.

In my mind I could feel

The weight of his hell,

Which made me hate his guts.

I cursed the day that gave him birth

And all his Nazi sluts

I didn't relish footslogging

Through a puddle of flanders mud.

I figured that chore was ended

With Willy chopping wood.

I knew this time it would be for me

A spell in the infantry,

For the Hussar mob that was my own

Now clattered around in tanks.

I did not like the idea of that. 

You can keep it with my thanks.

I always skin my knuckles

When I pick up a wrench,

And as for gas and crankcase oil,

I just don't care for the stench.

I had made my reservation

In the ranks of the R.M.R.'s

So all was set and ready

To shake the dice with Mars.

I'd be packing a rifle and bayonet

With a mills grenade or two.

It was little, the odds

In the laps of the gods

Was my fate with a million more.