Fragment one. The paper's torn. The sun came up. It stayed till morn. It hung up there and would not go, a red hole burning white and low. Three days we marched and no one spoke, and on the third the language broke. I asked the doctor what it was. He laughed. He laughed without a cause. I asked again. He turned his head and everything behind him — red. It isn't in the field. It isn't in the gun. It got into the blood. The blood has already won. Madness and horror. The sun won't set, the sky won't close — Madness and horror. It's in the sand, it's in my clothes — Red Laugh, Red Laugh. The earth has lost its mind tonight and this is how it laughs. They sent us back on a black-wheeled train, each turning wheel said the same refrain. The man beside me wore his cap across his knees to hide the gap. He asked the hour like a gentleman, then laughed and forgot who I am. The window filled with fields and wire, and every field was on fire. We called it glory. We called it a debt. The mouth fills up with one colour and I can't spit it out yet. Madness and horror. The sun won't set, the sky won't close — Madness and horror. It's in the sand, it's in my clothes — Red Laugh, Red Laugh. The earth has lost its mind tonight and this is how it laughs. At home the lamp is white and low. The tea goes round. The papers grow. They read the numbers out at dinner, pass the butter, ask for more. My son is on the carpet marching — he has built a little war. And I sit smiling in my chair with the sun still burning in my hair. The walls have gone. The floor is full. They're standing where the ceiling was — the ones we left, the dry, the pale, they've come to hear the news from us. They fill the hall, they fill the stair, they fill the house, they fill the air. No blood, no wound, no cry, no name — just red, and red, and red, and red. Madness and horror. The sun won't set, the sky won't close — Madness and horror. It's in the sand, it's in my clothes — Red Laugh, Red Laugh. The earth has lost its mind tonight and this is how it laughs. Fragment nine. The rest is gone. I'll bring it home. I'll bring you one.
