In my yard I see a group of children start to have a fight.
Boys and girls all fighting hard. It's quite a free-for-all,
And, even as I watch, the fight becomes a full-scale brawl.
I see young Helen seize Henry's hair
And pull a bunch out by the roots.
I hear Tommy saying that Bobby's not fair
To kick his face in with his football boots.
But I see his position is better than Mike's,
For he's kicked by Peter - who's wearing spikes!
I see little Mary twist Bobby's ear,
Which, doesn't, apparently, do much harm.
Then I hear a scream of pain and fear
For Johnny is breaking Henry's arm.
Now Alf gets an axe and removes Tommy's toes
Which causes poor Tommy to start to cry,
And John punches Jennifer in the nose,
For Jenny is trying to gouge out his eye.
Then Helen, she hammers on Henry's head
'Til his brains fall out of it into the mud.
Now Johnny's lost both eyes, and Henry is dead
And Tommy and Mike have lost lots of blood.
Now Tom punches Helen with all of his might,
While Alf, getting strangled, starts to cough.
Then Mary, with one enormous bite,
Chews some of Peter's fingers off.
Some time has passed and now one boy is standing, smiling, in the mud,
Amongst the bodies, lying dying, mangled, strangled in the mud.
Arms are broken, heads cracked open, bodies drowning in their blood.
Then this boy comes walking, stalking, trudging slowly through the mud.
He walks to the house and enters slowly, then he slowly shuts the door.
"Hello, Dad!" he says to me. "We have just been playing war!"
