Next year we are to bring all the soldiers home <br />For lack of money, and it is all right. <br />Places they guarded, or kept orderly, <br />We want the money for ourselves at home <br />Instead of working. And this is all right. <br /> <br />It's hard to say who wanted it to happen, <br />But now it's been decided nobody minds. <br />The places are a long way off, not here, <br />Which is all right, and from what we hear <br />The soldiers there only made trouble happen. <br />Next year we shall be easier in our minds. <br /> <br />Next year we shall be living in a country <br />That brought its soldiers home for lack of money. <br />The statues will be standing in the same <br />Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same. <br />Our children will not know it's a different country. <br />All we can hope to leave them now is money.<br /><br />Philip Larkin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/homage-to-a-government/
