Purple Heart

We started to lose you years ago It was subtle and slow How could we know? We held on to the pieces of you That shined like survivors in wreckage To me and my purple heart Just seventeen, you were too young to see what your daddy was fighting for That was another war, they took you away Though he begged you to stay 'Cause he knew what his baby had comin' So, he held on to you and your purple heart Bodies washed at the Normandy shores Remembering brother, remembering mother When they got the letter It never got better than holding hands at the hospital Watching his brother earn his purple heart So many bullets don't come from a rifle They're from doctors, and lawyers, and the news, and the Bible You took so many, I know you deserve every honor, though you never got one You just got me and my purple heart While we're saluting a cold 21 And we're on the front lines, but there ain't no guns They didn't shoot us, but Lord, how it stung when they laid him down Along with all of our purple hearts