(outta here...)




The Veteran
© 2000 Ron Perrone
Poem and music Music by Ron Perrone

<<play the tune>>

I'm told is a fortress of freedom I live in
But long-ago glory don't stop the cold winter wind
I heard how the army is fixin' to win
Down where the weather is warm
I heard that somewhere the people are singing
Tyrants are falling and the church bells are ringing
But things around here , they just seem togo sour as they go down
So I don't read the paper that I feed to the fire
I can't pay the insurance, so I don't drive this old car
Don't go to no doctor cause I can't get through the door
See my Brothers and Sisters pickin' through garbage long side the road
With things as they are
I guess I don't feel like waving old glory no more

Time after time a new day has begun
Youth comes of age and dries its wings in the sun
And all the games of life are either lost, called or won
We learn this by and by
But my generation found itself on the lamb
And my generation got cut down in 'Nam
The problem is not that I don't know who I am
Its that the anger comes and it goes
And the air ain't fit for breathin'
The water is goin' bad
And the truth still ain't in season
I wake up every morning praying things will have changed
But White House Mashers and Wall Street Bashers
Still hold the reins
On Horses bred for whipping blindly trampling the poor
While a nation bleeds its dreams, standing in the front row
Screaming for more

So now that the torch we once so brazenly dared
Burned the hands of the children in Tiennaman Square
We sit by  our TVs and  fritter away whats left of our freedom
The battle's all over, we've gone round the bend
The good ol' U S of A won in the end
Our enemies are whipped
We might as well now turn on our children
For some reason they are still getting stoned