A Marching
Song by Joe Petrulionis and Laurel Petrulionis
Psychedelic music, Thai sticks and bongs--
I stood there on the good side, against the
Viet Cong,
“stand up
for your country, boy, your country right or wrong,”
under the battle flag of freedom.
Eighteen years old, and half a world away--
containing Communism, there were zillions to be made,
“load them into sweat shops, pay em
fifteen cents a day,”
under the banner of fair trade.
Patriotic music, now, Hum-Vees, and bombs—
this time we were the good side, against Iraqi
moms,
what’s good
for Haliburton must be done for Uncle Sam,
and
Americans don’t really give a damn.
fighting terrorism is the price we pay today,
"guarding all those poppy fields and pumping all that crude,"
this song sounds even sadder on an oud.
But,
McCarthy is
a villain now, and Gandhi? He’s a saint.
Che’s on
teenage tee shirts, Richard Nixon
ain’t.
There’s something somewhere deep inside the spirit of our
youth,
Perhaps the pull of
History towards...
