We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD version of the album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Still In The War, Boys! via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      £8 GBP or more 

     

about

the common practice by some women, mainly suffragettes, was to try to shame men who were still at home by presenting them with a 'badge' to show their lack of courage - assuming them all to be pacifists - this was not always the case. This symbol was a white feather passed to them in the street. Chronologically - the incident portrayed here is deemed to have occurred on 30th August 1914
POETRY FORM: Free Verse

lyrics

White Feather

I didn’t see her pass me in the street,
the woman with the husband at the front,
but felt the tell-tale tickle of a feather -
pressed discreetly soft against my palm.
The accusation whispered in a hate-filled voice,
“Coward”, dripped with venom from her lips
and I assumed she talked to me, although I couldn’t see
if the feather in my hand was truly white.
For I had returned blind from a skirmish overseas -
a fact, to which, the spiteful wife was blind.
Though unlike her, I had lost my sight, not through ignorance,
just mustard gas and pure white blast
of ordnance designed to hurt and maim.

I asked myself, if Jesus Christ had deigned to walk the earth
in these testing times of blood and hate and war,
would he have volunteered to go to fight in France
or would he have stood in line with men of conscience
and received the burning ridicule and misdirected spittle
flung in their faces as they declared themselves pacifist?

Would he have taken arms with intent to kill a fellow man
who he had never met, in a ditch across the waves -
and would that seething woman, have pressed into his hand
a feather, white, with all that that entails
and branded Christ a coward in the eyes of the self righteous?

would she?
would she?
would she?

and if not – then she should think
upon the nature of a man
and ask herself
who is the brave
and who the bravest…..

credits

from Still In The War, Boys!, released October 3, 2014

license

all rights reserved

tags

If you like The Crows Of Albion, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Fabiana Palladino stops by to talk about her mesmeric debut LP.
listen now