music: Jerome Augustyniak/words: Natalie
Merchant

Detroit to D.C. night train, Capitol, parts East.
Lone young man takes a seat. And by the rhythm of
the rails, reading all his mother's mail from a
city boy in a jungle town postmarked Saigon. He'll
go live his mother's dream, join the slowest
parade he'll ever see. Her weight of sorrows
carried long and carried far. "Take these,
Tommy, to The Wall."

Metro line to the Mall site with a tour of
Japanese. He's wandering and lost until a vet in
worn fatigues takes him down to where they belong.
Near a soldier, an ex-Marine with a tattooed
dagger and eagle trembling, he bites his lip
beside a widow breaking down. She takes her Purple
Heart, makes a fist, strikes The Wall. All come to
Find more similar lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.com/iZblive a dream, to join the slowest parade they'll
ever see. Their weight of sorrows carried long and
carried far, taken to The Wall.

It's 40 paces to the year that he was slain. His
hand's slipping down The Wall for it's slick with
rain. How would life have ever been the same if
this wall had carved in it one less name? But for
Christ's sake, he's been dead over 20 years. He
leaves the letters asking, "Who caused my
mother's tears, was it Washington or the Viet
Cong?" Slow deliberate steps are involved. He
takes them away from the black granite wall toward
the other monuments so white and clean.

O, Potomac, what you've seen. Abraham had his war
too, but an honest war. Or so it's taught in
school.