An' the dawn comes up like thunder

But this is my last morning of chicken duty in our neighbours' garden, and not on the road to anywhere

The title is a line from Kipling's poem The Road to Mandalay, which was recited by our Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, on a visit to a Buddhist temple in Myanmar, until the desperate local ambassador closed him down. He finally shut up, but declared the poem "good stuff"

The poem depicts the nostalgia of a retired imperial soldier, stationed for 10 years in what was then Burma, during the time that Britain colonised the country, and fought three wars to supress local independence fighters. It focuses in particular on his 'romantic' relationship with a local girl, which began with him persuading her to kiss him rather than waste her kisses on a Buddhist temple shrine - which he declares to be a "heathen idol made of mud"

I imagine the kind of relationship Kipling had in mind (though he had barely set foot in Burma) was the 'country wives' that many long-term soldiers took in colonial postings - often producing children. Usually, these relationships ended when the posting came to an end, though some of the women and children were supported financially in some way

Times change, but the imposition of kisses on young women by men in a position of power does not