Key: Em
Introduction: G D Em
G D Em
Detroit to D.C.,
C D Am
Night train, capitol, parts east
G D Em
Lone young man takes a seat
A D Em
And by the rhythm of the rails
G D Em
Reading all his mother's mail
C D Am
From a city boy in a jungle town
G D Em
Postmarked : Saigon
G C G
He'll go live his mother's dream
G C D
Join the slowest parade he'll ever see
C D Am
Her weight of sorrows carried long and carried far
G Am Em
"Take these, Tommy, to the wall"
D G
Metro line to the mall site with a tour of Japanese
Em
He's wandering and lost until
G
A vet in worn fatigues
C G Am
Takes him down to where they belong.
G D Em
Near a soldier, an ex-marine
G D Em
With a tattooed dagger and eagle trembling
C D Am
He bites his lip beside a widow breaking down
G D Em
She takes her purple heart, makes a fist, strikes the wall
G C G
All come to live a dream
G C D
To join the slowest parade they'll ever see
C D Am
Their weight of sorrows carried long and carried far
G Am Em
Are taken to the wall
D G
It's 40 paces to the year that he was slain
Em D G
His hand's slipping down the wall for it's slick with rain
C G Am G
How would life have ever been the same
C G Am G
If this wall had carved in it one less name?
Em D G
But for Christ's sake, he's been dead over 20 years
Em
He leaves the letters asking
G
"who caused my mother's tears
C G Am
Was it Washington or the Viet Cong?"
G D Em
Slow deliberate steps are involved
G D Em
He takes them away from the black granite wall
C D Am
Toward the other monuments so white and clean
G D Em
O, Potomac, what you've seen
C D Am
Abraham had his war too
G Am
But an honest war
Em
Or so it's taught in school.