In the first world war My grandfather Is fighting in the trenches And I can't conceive Of the things he saw As his friends were blown to pieces In a chlorine burst over no-man's land They shot the boy deserters And it feels like chloroform And it feels like chloroform In the second World War my father served In the stormy North Atlantic As torpedoes burst his convoy hid From the U-boats of the Fascists The powder burns on the gunners' hood The pea coats of the fallen And the boots I bought From the vintage shop Were torn off from a dead man And it feels like chloroform And it feels like chloroform