Shadowland

Behind a nation's blind salute
Behind "my country 'tis of thee"
Behind the pain that won't compute
Erase the memory of shadowland.

An open wound that never heals
A bone that never seems to set
A mind that thinks but never feels
The face we've never met from shadowland.

They tell us time and time again
They only want a few good men
They lead us through the lion's den
To shadowland.

The world would just as soon forget
And watch the wreckage drift ashore
Ten years reduced to one regret
The baggage of war from shadowland.

Don't ask us how our names were lost
Our nation did a sleight of hand
We never saw the line we crossed
That took us into shadowland.

They tell us time and time again
They only want a few good men
They lead us through the lion's den
To shadowland.

The son will reap what fathers sow
But mothers have to hear the sound
Of the last breath of the boy next door
Whose life has ended

Shadowland, shadowland, shadowland.