“IT’S BEEN A LONG WALK HOME”
It’s been a long walk home, I’m almost there,
I see that flash, I hear that scream,
I’m right back there agin*,
lost in that same damn firefight,
It’s been forty years,
When will it end?
Every night it’s that same damn firefight,
We lost Sam and Bill,
Tag’em* and bag’em*,
we were told,
we’d* never seen em* agin*,
but every night, it’s their faces that I see,
and I ask myself why wasn’t it me,
my name should be etched in that cold black wall of stone,
It’s been a long walk home,
I’m almost there,
But I hear that chopper so near,
Raining tracers down,
Can’t they see us here?
Marine down, corpsman up,
But silence is all I hear,
Why am I the only one left,
Screaming GOD get me outa* here?
It’s been forty years,
I still see that day,
We were almost there,
The edge of the jungle,
I see that flash, I hear that scream,
Tag’em* n bag’em* the list goes on,
To many to remember,
It was their last firefight,
I’m the only one left,
Lost and running looking for my way out.
It’s been a long walk home,
My family, don’t understand
When I say that this can’t be real
Just let me wake up one time and this not be,
But it’s that same damn firefight every night,
I wake up shaking like a leaf in the wind,
Tell’n my wife that it was just a chill,
Not that rage to kill,
But she sees it in my eyes,
That same damn firefight,
It’s been a long walk home I’m almost there,
I was telling her good-bye,
When she realized I didn’t fear death anymore,
It was my life I was about to take,
She cried out for me to come out of that jungle, out into the daylight,
Think of the kids and what this would do,
She took me by the hand helping me make that first step,
Coming out of that jungle into the daylight,
It’s been a long walk home,
Forty years and I’m almost there,
I see that flash, I hear that scream,
but this time it’s a younger brother yelling out,
trying to find his way out into the daylight,
Out of that smoky fog of that same damn firefight,
It’s been forty years for me,
I see that flash, I hear that scream,
It’s their pain that I feel,
Knowing that this damn firefight is not real,
I’m here to help lead my younger brothers out,
Not to walk forty years as I,
Lost in that same damn firefight of PTSD!
By: The Unknown Veteran for PTSD Awareness http://www.petition2congress.com/2/3256/three-point-program-to-address-military-stress-related-issues/
