PLAYING WAR
Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978), in 1964

There's a nameless war in Vietnam,
There's wars in many lands,
And my little boy in our back yard,
Has a toy gun in his hands,
And the big toymakers in Buffalo
Are getting my boy set to go,
But I say No and the kids say No,
We're playing war no more.

Today it's a plastic tank or plane,
Tomorrow it's for real;
Today it shoots a wooden shot,
Tomorrow the bullet's steel.
And the buyers in the department store
Are getting my boy ready for war,
But I say No and the kids says No,
We're playing war no more.

Well, a little red wagon on the hill
Can pull his pal along,
But we want no little revolver gun
To shoot his buddy down.
The factories run in old New York
to get him ready for the dirty work,
But I say No and the kids say No,
We're playing war no more.

There's many a boy like my own boy
Who's lying in the mud,
And his good young life was cut away
While it was in the bud.
So the stores that offer death for play
Will have to get rich some other way
'Cause I say No and the kids say No.
We're playing war no more.

Well, the Army brass and the CIA
Are hardly grown-up boys,
And they're playing now with atom bombs
As though they were plastic toys.
But the life of the world is on the throw,
And while there is time, we're shouting "No!"
We say No and the kids say No,
We're playing war no more.

Don't know the melody or if/where it is recorded, but these are the words.

Cheers, S. in Seattle