Memorial Day’s on Monday but today I need a drink
Sometimes the past is such a mess I find it hard to think
So I set up on this exit just off the 85
With my flags and my old helmet and my will just to survive
And these steel legs that make me look like a scarecrow in a field
And this steel heart that beats in time but never really healed
So this flag's from my regiment and this from my hometown
And I live in hope that these Stars and Stripes won’t ever let me down
Memorial Day’s on Monday the parade will march though town
And the band will play ‘the green berets’ for the ones who got cut down
I’ll watch it on the evening news with these other broken vets
In this shelter that’s become our home with our memories and our regrets
Memorial Day’s on Monday but today I can’t forget
These scenes that haunt my memory from the calamities of Tet
That’s where I left my legs behind in the Battle of Saigon
Sometimes I wish they’d finished me as I strap these damn things on
My woman left me years ago we said goodbye as friends
She still tells me how sad she is in the postcards that she sends
They always come around this time with a postmark from Spokane
Her family’s all grown up now her youngest boy’s in Afghanistan
Memorial Day’s on Monday the parade will march though town
And the band will play ‘the green berets’ for the ones who got cut down
I’ll watch it on the evening news with these other broken vets
In this shelter that’s become our home with our memories and our regrets
Memorial Day’s on Monday they’ll march and wave Old Glory
But I’ll be at this traffic light with my steel legs and my story
So any change you’ve got I’ll take with a slug of humiliation
And just a touch of swallowed pride in the flag of our great nation
So spare a thought for the boys out there in a war they're going to lose
Who fight and die and all they get is two lines in the local news
Memorial Day’s on Monday and if I make another year
I’ll still be at this traffic light in this uniform I wear
Sometimes the past is such a mess I find it hard to think
So I set up on this exit just off the 85
With my flags and my old helmet and my will just to survive
And these steel legs that make me look like a scarecrow in a field
And this steel heart that beats in time but never really healed
So this flag's from my regiment and this from my hometown
And I live in hope that these Stars and Stripes won’t ever let me down
Memorial Day’s on Monday the parade will march though town
And the band will play ‘the green berets’ for the ones who got cut down
I’ll watch it on the evening news with these other broken vets
In this shelter that’s become our home with our memories and our regrets
Memorial Day’s on Monday but today I can’t forget
These scenes that haunt my memory from the calamities of Tet
That’s where I left my legs behind in the Battle of Saigon
Sometimes I wish they’d finished me as I strap these damn things on
My woman left me years ago we said goodbye as friends
She still tells me how sad she is in the postcards that she sends
They always come around this time with a postmark from Spokane
Her family’s all grown up now her youngest boy’s in Afghanistan
Memorial Day’s on Monday the parade will march though town
And the band will play ‘the green berets’ for the ones who got cut down
I’ll watch it on the evening news with these other broken vets
In this shelter that’s become our home with our memories and our regrets
Memorial Day’s on Monday they’ll march and wave Old Glory
But I’ll be at this traffic light with my steel legs and my story
So any change you’ve got I’ll take with a slug of humiliation
And just a touch of swallowed pride in the flag of our great nation
So spare a thought for the boys out there in a war they're going to lose
Who fight and die and all they get is two lines in the local news
Memorial Day’s on Monday and if I make another year
I’ll still be at this traffic light in this uniform I wear
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