The Box

Update - please see a correction, here

A regular reader made a comment on the Neocon’s Break Ranks post, referring to a poem by Lascelles Abercrombie, sung by John Denver, called The Box. This recommendation was accompanied by an emailed link to the lyrics, which I have reproduced below: -

LASCELLES
THE BOX

Once upon a time in the land of hush-a-bye,
around about the wondrous days of yore,
I came across a sort of box
bound up with chains and locked with locks
and labelled, “Kindly do not touch, it’s war.”

Decree was issued round about
all with a flourish and a shout
and a gaily coloured mascot tripping lightly on before:
“Don’t fiddle with this deadly box
or break the chains or pick the locks.
And please, don’t ever play about with war”

Well, the children understood,
Children happen to be good,
they were just as good around the time of yore
They didn’t try to pick the locks,
or break into that deadly box
They never tried to play about with war

Mummies didn’t either
Sisters, aunts, grannies neither
‘Cause they were quiet and sweet and pretty
in those wondrous days of yore
Well, very much the same as now,
not the ones to blame somehow
For opening up that deadly box of war

But someone did
Someone battered in the lid
And spilled the insides out across the floor
A sort of bouncy, bumpy ball
made up of guns and flags and all
the tears and horror and the death that goes with war

It bounced right out
And went bashing all about
And bumping into everything and stored
And what was sad and most unfair
is that it didn’t seem to care
how much it bumped
Or why, or what, or for

It bumped the children mainly
And I’ll tell you this quite plainly
It bumps them every day, and more and more, and leaves them
dead and burned and dying
Thousands of them sick and crying
‘Cause when it bumps, it’s really very sore

Now there’s a way to stop the ball
It isn’t difficult at all
All it takes is wisdom, I’m absolutely sure that we could get it
back into the box
And buy the chains and lock the locks
[but] No one seems to want to save the children any more

Well, that’s the way it all appears
‘Cause it’s been bouncing round for years and years
In spite of all the wisdom wiz since those wondrous days of yore
And the time they came across the box
Bound up with chains and locked with locks
And labelled, “Kindly do not touch, it’s war”

Words by Lascelles - Sung By John Denver

The poem, and the subsequent song, certainly have a timeless and poignant message.