Bayonettes and battlefields have been where I've been
In the skins of other souls and back again, I've been
Where I watch men dying from the inside out as they try
From the outside in
Cotton sales of sharecropped stocks have heard what I've heard
The lonesome call of the Yellow Dog across a bathtub third, I've heard
And I see men sure and faithful to a salve as they have
Disbelieved the cure
Tarnished relics of internal warfare know what I know
Without a good grip, justice seems to come and go, I know
And it's tragedy upon the first and farce upon the second
So I'm told
The hollow trill of dumb suggestion can't tell me that I will
Concede the head diseases preconceiving one to work the till
Though some minds fill themselves as gutters will with refuse
Shed from any spill
Bastions of eternal life can understand why I am
To love without a limit all that truly is and is truly of man
For what man sees is what man is and opened eyes can help crippled minds
To stand