Work-a-day Warriors/Sick Parade

by Joseph Lee

SICK PARADE

Orderly Corporal, loq.—
Fall in the lazy, the lousy, and the lame,
Fall in the blighters who are trying to play the game—
Give me your number, religion, age, and name—
Fall in, fall in!

Fall in the fellows with the chilly feet;
Fall in the blokes who've had too much to eat;
Fall in the "drafties" who are missing mother's teat—
Fall in, fall in!

Fall in, fall in, you heirs to every ill,
The "Doc" will dish you out his wonder-working pill—
"Nine" or "eleven"^[1] will either cure or kill—
Fall in, fall in!

Fall in—bolt down your bit o' breakfast rootie^[2],
You who expect to go to England, home, and beauty—
You'll be marked down for "medicine and duty"—
Fall in, fall in!

Fall in, the lousy, the lazy, and the lame,
Fall in the fellows who are out to play the game—
Give me your number, religion, age, and name—
Fall in, fall in!

1. Popularly or perhaps unpopularly-known among the men as "stoppers" and "starters."
2. Bread—a word adopted into the soldiers' vocabulary from his Indian comrades-in-arms.