Love in the Time of Nationalism

I looked into the window of the rusty old war tank

Dressed in new flags, for another empire.

The waving flags and the drums of war

Beat my passion up stronger

I was your army, a civilian no longer.

Even as you sat rusting away, edging closer and closer towards the edge

Of that old river Thames gushing towards the bed,

You sat on in your pants, watching, a cigarette in your mouth,

The army tanks rolling ahead

Obliterating humanity

And all you cried for was the machinery

And I was trapped in the cogs

I couldn't look into the window

All rusted and clouded within

And when finally the frost had cleared

It appeared that nothing was left, except a few old rags and war chests

And I had been fighting a year long war for no cause at all.

And slowly I rolled the rusted tank into the Thames

Until it dropped, submerged and tumbled away

Slapping on my army beret

I took up the sac that held all I ever needed

and walked from the old

And into the new

Now I will fight for my freedom

But never for you.