There was a time when I would play
Today was the same as yesterday
The news was read by a man named Cronkite
With my Dad we listened in the panel room light
I wondered if war was wrong; or was it right?

What could I ever know
Except what the TV might show
Was it what a preacher might preach
Or what a general might teach
The canon of a ghost a father and a son?
Or flags flying high above a smoking gun?

I saw a man with a loaded gun
Pointing at the temple of another one
But they were far away from me
Then I saw the barrel of a rifle
And a flower planted by a disciple
He said blessed are the peacemakers
But so too a man who lays down his life

I thought about a carpenter
A soldier and a gardener
The gospel rang in my ear
So too the flag I hold dear
And as I tilled the soil
My blood began to boil
For I have become a sinner
Who has no King but Caesar

Where did the little boy go
Who believed in good and not evil
Now he sees hate without reason
And love lost without a season
As he walks in the desert sand
A soldier and a prophet await
For what is man without fear
Or faith without scars in his hand?