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Red Badge of Courage |
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The Red Badge of Courage
Beguiles young'ns seeking glory's prestige
Ambitious youth seeking from the midst of carnage
Immediate nobility
A hero's notability
Forged from a coward a hero be...
Bravery wrought his destiny.
Bearing passions with bravado to "lick �em all,"
Tightrope walking the lip of battles fall
Charging all by yourself, proud and tall
Earn Preeminence
Proud prestige through battlefield prominence
Fight through gloried illustriousness.
Win a warriors reputation of storied distinction
Facing up to blood and destruction
Unafraid and without deviation
To righteously serve for what's right
With a warrior's appetite
To fight the good fight.
Youth's battle cry's a sword, a bullet
His combat badge of courage an amulet
Given to fight the enemy with passion
With a Spartan's ration
Regular gamecocks
Wily as the fox.
Charge
Into the valley
Into the shadow
Into the mouth of guns
Lost every sense but your hate.
For guts and love and glory irate
For country, mom and apple pie
Pray to the Lord and hope not to die
But if you should die in the battle's wake
Pray the Lord your soul to take.
Welcome soldiers gone to touch the great death
Tempting the master of lies evil breath
Glory mired in the blood and the mud
Honor and duty now but to survive
And watch the backs of the brotherhood
Stay alive...
And hope that it's enough.
But do they not bleed
This youthful seed
The Red Badge of Courage need
Youthful fodder for its cannons
To fill the void between ranks
Someone to guard the flanks...
Now dreaming of home
Trying not to think of what you've become
When the night turns to soft and eternal peace
God's of war to somehow appease
Your girl, your mom and dad...
Who knew it would be so bad.
Glory, glory, Hallelujah
Rah-rah, oompah-pah
Capture their flag
Watch out for that biting frag...
Hold it aloft for all to see
Divine the victory...
You've earned your Red Badge of Courage
Forever wear over your soul its bandage
Won what some call a "Move too slow award"
Fit to join the ranks on high...
Proved to all you're not a coward...
And up there somebody's smilin'
Who said he'd never smile again... |
By
Gary Jacobson
Copyright 2003
Listed
September 20, 2010 |
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About
Author...
In 1966-67, Gary Jacobson served with B Co
2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam as a combat
infantryman and is the recipient of the Purple
Heart.
Gary, who resides in Idaho writes stories he
hopes are never forgotten, perhaps compelled by
a Vietnamese legend that says, "All poets are
full of silver threads that rise inside them as
the moon grows large." So Gary says he
writes because "It is that these silver
threads are words poking at me � I must let them
out. I must! I write for my brothers who cannot
bear to talk of what they've seen and to educate
those who haven't the foggiest idea about the
effect that the horrors of war have on
boys-next-door."
Visit Gary Jacobson's site for more information
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