Blinding Flashes

The lifeless body of hero lay in silence

Face down in the dirt of the land that his fathers sewed

So unceremonious and callous

In a ditch of a shed on a dusty desert road

Ira spoke the proud tongue of the Pima

Yet he stood to fight when the bombs fell on his shores.

Cut his teeth on the isle of Iwo Jima

And the fame that he gained only filled him with remorse

He'd say the lights and flashes all are just a show

He'd say the real ones don't live to see another

And when the day is done you'll see the afterglow

Until it dulls and fades away

Survivor's guilt in the spotlight of the nation

would quickly drive the most pious men to drink

And when the papers cite your every altercation

You're an outcast on raft that's built to sink

He'd say the lights and flashes all are just a show

He'd say the real ones don't live to see another

And when the day is done you'll see the afterglow

Until it dulls

And he was outcast

He was defamed

He was hated, he was loved, he was a symbol

He was a hero to his kind, he was a leader to the blind

And he was praised

He was Ira Hayes