The garden of plenty
Amid the deserts of Afghanistan
Lush and lethal, bleak and ferocious
The green zone – lifeline of the Taliban

Thousands of them gathering at Musa Qala
In steep booby trapped wadis they wait
Hiding their mines and other devices
Like hunters priming deadly bait

Convoys of ‘Holy Warriors’
Arriving daily from neighbouring Pakistan
Targeting our soldiers
Any way they can

Jihadists make the zone their battle ground
Being so much smarter and wise
Unlike the black robes, sandals and AK-47’s
The typical Taliban guise

In the notorious Helmand Province
Soldiers stay on constant high alert
Seeking out the invisible enemy
Hiding in the dust and dirt

Through fields of crops and opium poppies
Our soldiers patrol each day
Wary of passing ‘civilians’
They meet along the way

Carefully and steadily, step by step
They advance towards compounds
Conscious of deadly packages
Buried in the ground

Dickers watching every move
That our soldiers bravely take
Reporting back to their leaders
So an ambush they can make

Small arms fire comes raining down
RPG’s shattering walls to pieces
Soldiers dive for the nearest shelter
Ditches filled with human faeces

For now this garden of plenty
Remains a Taliban domain
But our soldiers will continue to drive them out
Over and over again

Under brutal conditions composures remain
Our soldiers they fight hard and long
Their professionalism unswervingly impressive
A quality which makes them so strong

This so called unwinnable war will be won
How long it will take not yet known
But one day in time Afghanis will find peace
The Taliban at last over thrown