Cigarettes and a bottle of beer

This poem that I wrote for you

This black stone and these hard tears

Are all I've got left now of you

I remember you in your Marine uniform laughing

Laughing that you're shipping out probably

I read Robert McNamara says he's sorry



You and your boots and black t-shirt

Ah Billy you looked so bad

Ya, you and your rock and roll band

Was the best thing this shit town ever had

Now the man who put you here

He feeds his family in rich dining halls

And apology and forgiveness have no place here at all

At the wall



I'm sorry I missed you last year

I couldn't find no one to drive me

If your eyes could cut through that black stone

Tell me would they recognize me?

For the living, time must be served

Life goes on

Cigarettes and a bottle of beer

Skin on black stone



High School pictures, paper flowers

Ribbon, red as the blood

Ya, as the blood you spilled

In the Central Highlands mud

Now the limousines rush down Pennsylvania Boulevard

As the rain falls

And apology and forgiveness have no place here at all