Union Songs
My Children
A song by Jack Warshaw©Jack Warshaw 2009
- [play]
My children never asked what it was like for me
I thought somehow that they might want to know
Why they called me up to go and fight in Vietnam
And why I said “Hell no I won’t go”They were born in peacetime, grew up and went to school
Where they learned about the war in history
In their exercise books they wrote the names and dates and places
But they never asked what it was like for meNo they never asked just how it felt to face arrest and jail
Or how it did torment my family
Will they understand the duty to defy an evil law
And battle for your country’s enemySo many times when I wished I could set their minds at ease
Though it may be hard to remember an old war
But now we hear of young men out in Afganistan
Who wonder what the hell they’re fighting forSome laws may protect us but others are to blame
For causing so much pain and misery
My kids must their own lives, that much I understand
But perhaps they’ll ask what it was like for me.
Notes
Many thanks to Jack Warshaw for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection
See more of Jack Warshaw's work in this collection.
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory