The Terrible Cost

Into a place inside the mind Rivers flowing cascades of time Violent winds Melting rhymes See a colour before my eyes A song playing softly The multitudes cried As a baby was born My friend died Because of Viet Nam People cried But nobody heard We saw it creeping Knowing in time Death always wins out Now it’s been decades Bobby’s been sleeping Time takes the child Raises him up Army takes the boy Makes him a man Sometimes the boy Is not ready to be a man But along comes war And forces his hand How many young men Both living and dead Living in peace time Different thoughts in their heads How many doctors How many cops How many teachers How many mechanics How many priests How many artists How many politicians How many disc jockeys How many weathermen How many fathers Sending their boys off to war Knowing when they if they return Will be their boys no more Haunted eyed soldier Stands at parade rest The names of his buddies Tattooed on his chest Till home he arrives No welcoming band Just a needle and a bottle cap And a stone with the rest