Cm                     Bb        G
I got the news on the satellite phone:
Ab     G           Ab
Jason, come home, Jason, dear
Cm                Bb
I heard it on the forest floor
Cm                        Bb
Six years of back country trails to the lake
G           Ab       G          Ab
Machete and snake, machete I learned
Cm     Ab        Bb
To cradle in the Old State Park


[Chorus 1]
Ebm             Db       Bbm
Roosevelt, '33, he had a plan
    B           Abm
For every young man:
Gb          Ebm       Db
Give him an ax and a seed;
Bbm        B           Db
Give him a pack and a tree;
Eb           Abm       Gb
Teach him to care for himself;
Bb            Abm          Ebm
Give him fresh air for his health;
Bbm  B
Send money back to family

         Bb        Abm
Back to Baltimore
               Bb              Abm
The tallboy convenience store
                     Gb
The indifferent, the endless war
      B
And I know what that is
      Abm
And I know what that is
      Ebm                  E
And I don’t need it anymore
                 B
But I have to go home

Gb   Db

[Verse 2]
Cm                       Bb          G
Luke was the son of some well-to-do folk;
    Ab                   G          Ab
My family was broke, but we became friends
    Cm               Gm         Bb
The parking lot, the chewed up field
   Cm            Bb                        G
I started in the park just as he was going in
   Ab                      G       Ab
A hard eight to ten for selling to kids;
Cm    Gm            Bb
My momma worked the county jail


[Chorus 2]
Ebm                    Db        Bb
Roosevelt's Tree Army, under the sun
    B              Abm       Gb
The work would be done while America
 Db         Ebm            Db
Bled by the greed of the rich
Gb               Db               Ebm          Db
The boys planted trees and found God in the pitch
     Eb            Abm          Gb
They stared at the sod in each fist—
Db        Bb          Ebm
Why am I telling you this?
Bb             B
Is it that I'm nervous to be going back?

        Bb         Abm
Back to Baltimore
                Bb             Abm
The tallboy convenience store
                     Gb
The indifferent, the endless war
      B
And I know what that is
      Abm
And I know what that is
       Ebm                   E
And I don’t need it anymore
                 B         Gb
But I have to go home


[Bridge]
D                           Gb
Luke, I guess, got himself into a fight
         D                Gb
Took him to the infirmary later that night
         D                      Gb7
Nothing serious, sure, but next morning he died
         D                         Gb
Then the satellite phone with the crew
                     Abm     Eb
Which meant I didn't cry

[Interlude]

Abm   Eb x 3


[Verse 3]
    Cm                       Bb                G
I'm taking the train to take time for my thoughts
Ab                   G             Ab
Pregnant with loss, preparing for all
    Cm            Gm            Bb
The things that maybe make you feel

      Cm                       Bb         G     Ab
I'll pay my respects and then I'll take a walk
                  G      Ab
The neighborhood block