Now I lay me down to sleep With prayers that chuck won't leap Over the wire or under creep And from incoming, not a peep
Just one long unbroken night With no waking with a fright With no fearful imagined sight Just one night would be all right
But as I lay there and did this dream Came the inbound with a scream Nights like this can make you mean No rest from war it would seem
You grab your jacket, boots, and pot M-16 and all the rest you got "Damn this shit" is a passing thought As you wish that chuck would rot
Out the hootch and down the bunker For an hour you just hunker To say you're mad couldn't be blunter Another night has been blown asunder
Eventually, the all clear sounds The relief from all abounds Perhaps tonight no more incoming rounds Such nights form justifiable grounds
For a deep-seated hatred of war Not for the cause for which I was sure But for the fear and death and more War does not conform to the stuff of lore
War is dirty, it's hard and it hurts It kills with out mercy both shirts and skirts This wasn't what I expected, the private blurts I'm sorry my son, but that's the way war works