Tom Flannery - My Lai lyrics

That old rocking chair creaks like a b**h Gotta hunt down some 3-1 oil Screen door hangs by a rusted hinge And my dog ain't been too loyal She's been spending her time at neighbor's Guess she gets a better deal down there The sun just sits like a hangman's noose Whenever I sit and stare I've gone 60 but feel much older now Youth pa**es like a novel's page I watched my buddies dying And my heart turned stone with rage War makes sinning easy And with orders you must comply So I became just what they wanted On that morning in My Lai Came home to a farm that looked different From when I left to go to war The drought had left it only brown Where there'd been green before So I took my medals and struck out And went searching for a home And the faces all came with me Like a greaser and his comb My Lai My Lai My Lai My Lai Big city chewed then spit me back I guess she didn't like the taste How can a man live day to day And not be given time to waste? I looked up some boys who came back But it all seemed different now All we knew to talk about Was to ask each other how The ties that used to bind me Didn't hold me down no more When the soil underneath you feet Is someone else's floor You're like a bird forgetting how to fly Tell yourself again and again That this world don't owe you nothing But the chance to make amends My Lai My Lai My Lai My Lai I've buried wives and children And memories in the ground Watched the paint start peeling And my belly getting round Empty bottles in the hallway Empty scrap books in the drawer Would things have turned out different If I never went to war? MY eyes ain't what they used to be And I can't hear too good Spend my days with a pen knife Whittling a piece of wood Preacher says my soul's on fire And only God can douse the flame But I remember when I did my k**ing That I did it in his name My Lai My Lai My Lai My Lai I'm too old for forgiveness Can't undo what I've done With the back of my weathered hands Or the waving of a gun My liver she up and left me And my heart's on the next train All I need is the strength to stop the blood From running through my veins I remember the little children And the women who held them tight And the smoke rising from the village That turned morning into night My eyes just rolled back in my head And with all that that implies I too was KIA.... That morning in My Lai My Lai My Lai My Lai My Lai