Hometown Battlefield

He got home from the service as the spring began its turn Twelve long months away He folded up his uniform with the medals tucked inside Started living for today But the present could not find him, nor could his wife and kids He was there but he was gone And soon his only comfort was a bottle and his gun Something right that went so wrong And the silence keeps on coming as the movie plays again He can smell that yellow dust and death hanging on the wind And we thought the war was over, but the headlines do reveal That another soldier died today on the hometown battlefield He sits outside the courthouse with his pant legs tucked away And no one knows his name One wrong step there in the sand put him where he is today One more just the same All his memories live there in the space below his knees Back when he was whole But that IED didn't just relieve him of his legs It blew apart his soul And the silence keeps on coming as the movie plays again He can smell that yellow dust and death flying on the wind And we thought the war was over, but the headlines do reveal That another soldier died today on the hometown battlefield If you're wearing loafers, you ain't walked the burning sands And you ain't never had to shoot another living man It don't matter if we won, it don't matter if we lost They were following their orders, no matter the cost So I remember what they've given when I see my flag unfurled Free against the sky And the way we seem to lose them when they get back to the world Can someone tell me why That the silence keeps on coming as the movie plays again He can smell that yellow dust and death hanging on the wind And we thought the war was over, but the headlines do reveal That another soldier died today on the hometown battlefield Yes, we pray the war is over, but the headlines do reveal That another soldier died today on the hometown battlefield