Rumors of War

He sang a tune or two in a one man band

Then hopped a train to a distant and nameless land

And in a boxcar he heard someone say

'You can't take back what you never gave away'

There are rumors of war; there are holes in the sky
The dead line the roads but no one hears them cry
The living are throwing stones into an empty well
Their houses are bare; they have nothing left to sell

I hum along to a song that I know and understand
as I trudge toward that distant and nameless land.
And in the darkness I hear someone say
'You can't take back what you never gave away'