Um …
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that’s been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said “son if it was up to me”
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said “son, don’t you understand”
I had a brother at Khe Sanh fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go
Generational thing I guess, I ETSed in 72 and know some names on the DC wall.
(would have just said “the wall” except that, having served in Berlin …)