Terry Neilson - Three Wars lyrics

The first war, the war of 14 to 18 Begins with an uprising of adrenalin The first war begins with the testicles descending And desire a**a**inating the child that you once were The war begins at school when you rebel against the maths teacher Who touched you up behind his desk And ends when you've failed your final maths exam And had your first success with s** The war brings new discoveries How to make dog fights with your thyroid and pituitary glands How the Zeppelin can fly at your command And a generation lays down its life When after all they've done for you The good parents die Resurrected as your enemy And when the girl you've started wanting More than all you've ever wanted says no She is your enemy too But you survive And from the trenches of your newly found opinions Quickly dug, quickly abandoned The white flag waves for an armistice on Christmas Day Then your voice rings round the family front room Like a drill sergeant's in front of his platoon Broken too soon But you survive The second war, the war of 39 to 45 Begins when you identify your own inner Third Reich The second war begins with a sudden hypochondria A visit to a doctor who waves a piece of paper and says 'This time it's just a false alarm' The war begins at work with some intoxicating news When the letter comes that offers you promotion And ends when you decide to let them offer it To younger men with more ambition The war brings new perspectives when you suddenly see through The politics of power which possessed you Through all your working hours And a generation lays down its life When the whizz kids of the industry Slow down and die resurrected as your enemy And when the woman who accepted you When all the rest rejected you goes She is your enemy too But you survive And at weekends you get custody of an only child Already adolescent and unreconciled Who laughs at you, you and your new-found piety And his laugh rings round your faint desire for god Like an order from an inner firing squad Breaking the ties of blood But you survive But the third war is the war that never comes The war that never comes to everyone Begins the second after next by accident Ends everything except itself The war brings nothing, the unimaginable That the old imagine all the time Imagine imagination dying And a generation lays down its life When it refuses the creation of new ways to live And when the great invention falls apart Ripping through the atoms of your heart The third war will start Which no-one survives