This is the best time of the day?the dawn
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The final cleansing breath unsullied yet
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By acrid fume or death’s cacophony
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The rank refuse of unchained ambition
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And pray, deny me not but know me now,
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Your faithful retainer stands resolute
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To serve his liege lord without recompense
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Perchance to fall and perish namelessly
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No flag-draped bier or muffled drum to set
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The cadence for a final dress parade
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But it was not always thus?remember?
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Once you worshipped me and named me a god
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In many tongues and made offering lest
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I exact too terrible a tribute
|
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Take heed for I am weary, ancient
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And decrepit now and my time grows short
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There are no honorable frays to join
|
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Only mean death dealt out in dibs and dabs
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Or horror unleashed from across oceans
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Assail me not with noble policy
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For I care not at all for platitude
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And surrender such tedious detail
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To greater minds than mine and nimbler tongues
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Singular in their purpose and resolve
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And presuming to speak for everyman
|
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Oh, for another time, a distant field
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And there a mortal warrior’s lonely grave
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But duty charges me remain until
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The end the last battle of the last war
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Until that ‘morrow render unto me
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That which is mine my stipend well deserved
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The fairest flower of your progeny
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Your sons, your daughters your hopes and your dreams
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The cruel consequence of your conceit
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Warrior
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| Steve Earle |
