John

There was this explosion and there was blood all around
He was hit and took cover behind a wall
Before he fainted he saw a crying child
As he awoke in hospital he thought “Thank God I’m alive”
     He survived this war of atrocities,
     Against fanatic, invisible enemies,
     But how to live along with all he had seen,
     With these lesions on body and soul

He saw too many fallen comrades in arms
And too many locals who were killed or who starved
They never knew who’s an enemy or who’s a friend,
And there was this fear that never ends
     He escaped this hell of bombs, dead and fear,
     In a distant land of dust and poverty
     But how to live along with all he had seen,
     With these lesions on body and soul

He went to the army when he was eighteen
And he wasn’t prepared what he got to see
Too young to drink alcohol; old enough to kill
Sent to a war he didn’t grasp and he never will
     He survived a war that wasn’t his own,
     The relations of this conflict he could never decode,
     But how to live along with all he had done,
     With these lesions on body and soul

His Grandfather fought on world war two
They know what they fought for and against whom
There’s a roll of honour, survivors got a high decoration
John, was disabled and he got just a very small pension
     He survived a war that wasn’t his own,
     The relations of this conflict he could never decode,
     But how to live along with all he had done,
     With these lesions on body and soul

Now he’s sitting on his porch day by day
Watching the world and trying to push the memories away
Too disabled to work, too young to die
Forgotten by life and the world outside
     He survived this war of atrocities,
     He escaped this hell of dead and fears,
     But how to live along with all he had seen,
     With these lesions on body and soul

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