(Spoken)
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That's him in the corner of social oblivion
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Encompassed by the sweet sense of freedom
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That only borders the aura of deep cerebral gouges
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Buried in each beat of the heart he was once proud to home
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If only his substance held a higher level of potence
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He might be able to drown the portion of his mind
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Which is trapped in the infinite hoard
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Of his 1972 through '74 tour through the flames of this hell
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Sometimes gunfire is brighter than the sunshine
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And sometimes a child's scream influences every dream
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Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking we've moved on
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But no way, nohow, do we ever forget what we've seen
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No way, nohow, do we ever forget what we've seen
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No way, nohow, do we ever forget what we've seen
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No way, nohow, do we ever forget what we've seen
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No way, nohow, do we ever forget what we've seen
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It's now twenty-five years later, he's on the brink of forty-three
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Still searching for sanity, surveying the floor of his distorted sea
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He rememebers high-school friends joking about the war
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Never knew what mom was crying for (Never knew what mom was crying for)
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The other piece that shines in his mind was a divine first love
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Sewn-made, beauty, brown-eyed queen he left behind
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He remembers holding her tight, watching the sunset at shore
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Never knew what she was crying for (Never knew what she was crying for)
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He got the letter in the mail by the middle of his summer
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Wouldn't have had to go if it wasn't for his newborn brother
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He was barely eighteen, murdering people even younger
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And he still ducks and covers every time he hears the thunder
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He still hears the screams, smells the flesh, tastes the death
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Sees the blood, feels the pain, what's to gain, nothing's left
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But the slug that remains in his right calf
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The bullet laughs every time he cries, and it drives him mad
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Trying to sleep, but the visions give him a cold sweat
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The war's been over for two decades, but he still hasn't been home yet
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And every day he waits and strains to supress his guilt
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And forget the horror and the violence; the "kill or be killed"
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Fists, they always clenched; teeth, they always grinding
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Real life is lost and in a bottle he tries to find it
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"It's not fair," he mumbles through a nightmare
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Only in a fight for two years and wound up spending his whole life there
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(Chorus)
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He was face to face with the devil for the welfare of his country
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Now he's straining to live but his conscience won't let him
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It ain't flashbacks, you have to understand the tragedy, see
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He left the war, but the war never left him, see
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He left the war, but the war never left him, see
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He left the war, but the war never left him, see
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He left the war, but the war never left him, see
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He left the war...
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It's now twenty-five years later, he's on the edge of a park bench
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He asked God for hope and found his source non-existant
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He sits in the shadows, because the sun burns no more
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Now he knows what mom was crying for (Now he knows what mom was crying for)
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I used to watch old man in the park
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The sights slowly drove fright through my heart
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Wishing I could help but not knowing where to start
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I'd walk away, curse the world, gush some love and curse some more
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Now you know who I've been crying for (Now you know who I've been crying
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for)
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He threw his medals in the river but they sunk alone
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Put shades on his eyes to hide it from the warzone in the sky
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He tried to slit his wrists about a month ago
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But he's seen so much death, he's scared to life of suicide
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If there was only some way he could escape this penitentiary
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Goals get bigger and figures it'll chase away his memory
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But the dreams only worsen, the scenes almost burst in
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He recalls how training took away his right to be a person
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Put a gun in his hand, left him to die for the land
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The plan was the murder of man (The plan was the murder of man)
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Politicians have a dispute to decide to send in troops
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But the truth is they just don't understand (They just don't understand)
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Now he's running out of time, and running out of energy
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But 'til the last day he w |