Phil Ochs — White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land

[Verse 1] The pilot's playing poker in the cockpit of the plane The casualties are rising like the dropping of the rain And a mountain of machinery will fall before a man When you're white boots marching in a yellow land [Verse 2] It's written in the ashes of the village towns we've burned It's written in the empty beds of fathers unreturned And the chocolate in the children's eyes will never understand When you're white boots marching in a yellow land [Chorus] Red blow the bugles of the dawn The morning has arrived you must be gone And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls Like old whores following tired armies [Verse 3] Train them well, the men who will be fighting by your side And never turn your back if the battle turns the tide For the colors of a civil war are louder than commands When you're white boots marching in a yellow land [Verse 4] Blow them from the forest and burn them from your sight Tie their hands behind their backs and question through the night But when the firing squad is ready they'll be spitting where they stand At the white boots marching in a yellow land [Chorus] Red blow the bugles of the dawn The morning has arrived you must be gone And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls Like old whores following tired armies [Verse 5] The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage Raw recruits are lining up like coffins in a cage Oh, we're fighting in a war we lost before the war began We're the white boots marching in a yellow land [Chorus] And the lost patrol chase their chartered souls Like old whores following tired armies