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A Chronicle of Wasted Time

from A Chronicle of Wasted Time by Balance Lost

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lyrics

This is a chronicle of wasted time
I can't catch up, I've found it's pointless trying
I was at Poplar Hospital when war broke out
Treating casualties, dealing with black-outs
I escaped to the army on April Fool's day
62nd Anti-Tank Regiment R.A.
Which means Royal Artillery, but we were unequipped
Wandering England uselessly, until a ship
The Duchess of Bedford came to take me away
Around the south cape, Durban and finally Bombay
A short stay allocating jobs, which I traded
To help civvies in Singapore get evacuated
A fortnight passed and the island was quiet
I had a Livens Projector which I never fired
But the fire came, from small arms and bombs
Burning the curtains, just as quickly it was gone
Then silence...

So there's silence, and I learned we had capitulated
Sent to a camp, beside me was situated
Major White, he'd been in a tight squeeze
I hero-worshipped him and he was fluent in Japanese
But he died in an air crash after the war's end
To this day I still mourn the death of a friend
But then I was sent to Taiwan on a cargo ship at sea
Carrying sugar and ice all infected with dysentry
I declined, Lt. Hollis died, I was in trouble
When we made land I drank from a puddle
Extreme thirst has the effect of destroying caution
Despite all to visible signs of contamination
Pellagra, diptheria, oedema, malaria
dropping like flies from trivial hard labour
Our captors were monsters, cursing the sun
To us and each other, all except one
I never learned his name but we called him Busty

After two years of labour came a brief respite
I learned to swim underwater, escaping the daylight
Worms crawled up my throat, rats in the night
I drank a whole bottle of morphine hydrochloride
The seriously ill were taken away
We never saw any of them again
The floor was alive, mats crawling with fleas
Unloading, our possession fell into the sea
An act of charity from a man on a bicycle
Colours my opinion of the millions of Chinese
Set free finally by the Russian army
Barter for meals and raiding the brewery
Given demob. clothes to change my appearance
Told not to complain about our experience
Getting those years back has always been stressful
Difficult, fruitless, but never successful

credits

from A Chronicle of Wasted Time, released September 26, 2017

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Balance Lost London, UK

Catchy guitar and synth pop with drum machines and samples. Currently residing in Kyoto, Japan.

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