Dear old captain don’t you now brood
Don’t you remember the days when the going was good
Oh certainly you must remember
For you told it to us each this time and that time too
The days where we had our beer not our fear
The days where we watched our sons rise, not suns
The days we had our songs not sungs
The days we lived in merry not dreary
The days where in the ground we planted fern not men
The days where we sang our anthem from our hearts
Not hunger filled bellies and thirsty sated throats
The days where there was no crack and spit, and where
We had only handshakes and wine sips
The days where treaties tore the gore of war to pieces
The days where peace never did cease
The days when the melodious music would unlock the
Swift waists of our girls and they would wiggle to our bulge
And take us to the haven of our birth where we were
Once blood and infant
Squirming in the delightful fresh air of life now
Wriggling in the pleasure of ecstasy
Lets not forget that that girl we took in the bushes
Never gave her consent
Dear old captain do you remember now
Ah!
How would you shake your head vehemently and say no
Ah!
How could you say you do not remember
Look at me now
I lie by you and stay still like you
Look at me
You must swear that you do not remember
Touch your forefinger to your forehead
Yes to that hole there
That hole that oozes out now
Just like the one on mine
Touch your finger there and raise it to the sky
Raise it to the heavens and let all of creature bear witness
Raise your forefinger and swear by the wind and time that
You do not remember
Swear dear old captain
By the footsteps of our past comrades that fell by the way
By the ghouls that haunt us by each night and day
By the horrors we witnessed last year May
By the tears of the little boy with a gun who now dead lay
By the name of the God who even now hears me pray
Swear dear old captain I again say
Swear also by the innocence of that poor hapless dame
The one with whom we played the forced lustrous game
Swear to me by your fathers name
That each of those days was not now the same
Swear that you don’t remember the good days of fame
That you don’t remember the better days that never came