Just Seventeen

“A young boy, just turned seventeen, in the trenches during World War 1. I tried to imagine the horror of what he had to endure. Then, through a veil of tears, I wrote this.”

Somewhere in the fields of France

I cannot tell you where

I lied about my age

So I could say that I was there

To fight for King and Country

As only soldiers can

Maybe to be a hero

Or just to be a man

CHORUS:
And I am just seventeen, you know
I am just seventeen

The dreadful din of battle

Shells above me whine

The pounding of the heavy guns

But we must hold the line

Death is all around me

I hear the whistle blast

The lads are going over

Is it time at last?

CHORUS:
And I am just seventeen, you know
I am just seventeen

BRIDGE:
Johnny took a rifle round

Out upon the killing ground

Tangled in the wire that held him

Helpless where he lay

He saw his life before him

And he heard the Angels calling

The dead cried out their warning

As his soul was whisked away

CHORUS:
And I am just seventeen, you know
I am just seventeen

There are no words that can describe

The things that I have seen

The horrors of the battlefield

The dying and the screams

Mortars and the land mines

Bodies blown apart

Numbing all my senses

Tearing at my heart

CHORUS:
And I am just seventeen, you know
I am just seventeen

If indeed I do survive

The bullets and the bombs

The dirty stinking trenches

The gas that rolls along

I will ask the question

Cannot war be banned?

And why the age of innocence

Died in No Man’s Land

CHORUS:
And I am just seventeen, you know
I am just seventeen