Janis Ian Roses For The Damned
One too many gone, one too many died All my heroes have been silenced All the young men marching off in two-four time Dance to that righteous killer's cadence
One too many gone, laying wasted in the sand Death's got no feeling for the brave Crazed men hustling selling guns and ammunition Bear your rifle, bear your burden, save your children
Mothers raise their sons for the sacrifice Babies carry guns and dream of paradise Nectar and roses and soft dark Arabian nights Dying for water, and no oasis in sight
No mean day dream bridal magazine promises to wave a magic wand Advertising confidence, fourteen lesson eloquence Will teach you how to live beside the bomb
High school fools rule, foam from the mouth Keep you 'til you're old enough to buy Teachers talk of temperance, allegiance to coincidence snd documents to recompense your pride
No one calls on you to live, no one calls you to die No one sends roses to crazy old ladies who lie in dark dusty rooms the size of a small foreign car Sometimes you wonder where all the good people are
Strangers walk the streets in the summer heat Tempers shorter than a baby's dryness Stepping on your shoes, leaving mind and body bruised Ain't it easy now to kill someone for kindness
It'd make a man of any man who's old enough to cry Surely make a loser feel at home Blessings on the children of the city when they die One more overpopulation gone
You cannot walk the streets no more, or live in town I always thought there'd be somewhere to crawl when the sky fell down I'm watching my horizon exploding like a spring too tightly wound Silence is the only sound