A Soldiers Story (Pilgrim's Address)

Mr. President, you don't know my name,
But you could find it if you really cared,
because I pay my taxes and I pay my dues,
All I ask for in return is the truth,
Can we just be honest, I've heard that
speech is free
So please believe me that this address
is sincere
I'm no-one special, just a regular guy
But I just can't keep on wondering why
That the shells we fired they now kill
our own
And we waste away like shadows in our
homes.

I fell from blue skies, fought through
desert storms
I froze in firefights and killed someone,
That had a father who loved him just
like mine
Who believed the sacrifice was justified,
In the name of freedom and in the name
of God
While shifting sands hid all our sins and
all the blood
In the wake of glory,
I flew back home
I watch videos at night in
uniform

Of those towns and cities
being torn apart
By those bombs that fool
the people by
being smart
As they flew down chimneys along
corridors
And explode on film and everyone
goes awe!

And you read the stories about how
no-one's killed
And I think about the photo that I kept
To remind me that it was all for real
And the ghost that I've become wil
be released
To the sands still shifting that cover all
the lies
About what really happened and who
really died
Was it really worth it?
Was it worth the cost?
Did we really take the high ground or
have we lost
All the moral battles did we lose the war
Mr. President I need to know for sure
That with all this knowledge all
this control
That we were on the side of right
after all
That we weren't lied to, that we
weren't used
And the country that we fought for still
upholds the truth

Mr. President you don't know my name
but you could find it if you really cared
It's on a black wall on a cross of stone
In the Balkan States, the Gulf and close
to home
On not so foreign islands out on
city streets
Mr. President just tell me why I'm here
This is my question, this is my life this is
my address
Mr. President