Thursday

Lyrics

There's a purple heart on the stars and stripes tonight
And it's pinned to the chests of the latest liars.
If you try to speak your mind
They tell you "keep it to yourself-
You've got friends in the armed forces."
They want to know which side you're on
But it doesn't matter because we're all being used
To train, to fight
To disregard all human rights
To play the part of
The conscience of the damned.
You say you're defending me?
I'm sick of tying yellow ribbons,
Praying not to see
Another folded flag to a mourning mother.
He was an army of one but they'll find another
And in the fold of the body bag
She'll find a check for a hundred grand.
She's got friends in the armed forces.
Now we know what a soldier costs
But what's the cost for the rest of us
To take a life
We all have our price:
The wife and kids sleep soundly in their beds.
You say you're defending me.
Well I'm out tying yellow ribbons on every single tree
I've seen them float like butterflies back home.
I can feel the desert's heat when you're standing next to me
Our friendship offers no relief.
Stay with me now just hear me out:
Don't want to lose you to the great black cloud that's coming down.
You've seen the path the bullet makes when it calls you by your name
And the medic can't play the rhythm of your heart
So it starts to fade like footsteps in a march as the parade passes by.
The ticker-tape will rise like sparks when we're born
To change our minds,
Everything that's wrong looks right.
The lives we lead are somewhere in between.

March: Left, right, left.
Now sing it,
"We're not going to hell
To run rings around a wishing well."