[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