French Summer Sun

We heard the quiet buzzing of a fly

For a second, he wasn't quite sure what it was

Till it tickled his face and he opened his eyes

On a beach in the French summer sun

With sulphur in the air and the smell of something worse

He leaned up on his elbow and looked around

He wiped some blood from his face, saw his buddy James

Mangled and torn apart on the ground

The medics got to him, and he thanked God they did

Spent 27 days in a field hospital

'Fore making the slow trip home to the States

Minus one leg, still seemed impossible

Got a job sorting mail in the Birmingham Post Office

Five days a week, enough pay to get by

He met a beautiful girl through a mutual friend, and

11 months later, that girl was his wife

Well, nightmares were often and so vivid and real

He'd wake up screaming a few times a week

She was patient and kind, stayed by his side

In time, he found a more restful sleep

By the next year, they had them a son

Got drafted when he turned eighteen

He went off to fight, but he came back whole

Met my mom, and they had me

And I come from a long line of soldiers

And their blood's still flowing through me

They fought in fields in foreign lands

So I could be who I wanted to be

I broke the streak and I went to college

Instead of Kabul or Kuwait

Got my degree and got hired to teach

Shakespeare and Wordsworth and Yeats

At a decent sized high school outside of Atlanta

I did the best that I could

That's heady stuff for kids that age

But all in all, I think I did some good

And I come from a long line of soldiers

Whose blood still flowing through me

And they fought in fields in foreign lands

So I could be who I wanted to be

We heard the quiet buzzing of a fly

For a second, he wasn't quite sure what it was

Till it tickled his face and he opened his eyes

Then he died there in that French summer sun

And that girl he would have met sorting mail back in Birmingham

She met a lawyer, and they fell in love

So their story ends before it began

On that beach in the French summer sun

And that child she had, well, that wasn't my dad

And I wasn't ever his son

So my story ends before it began

On that beach in the French summer sun

And I come from a long line of soldiers

Whose blood flowed into the sea

War took more than just one life

It took him and his son, me