Purple Heart

I've got some change in my pocket
New shoes on my feet
But I work like the devil
For the little I can keep
There's a woman who loves me
Asleep in the car
While I'm drinking cheap whiskey
In this roadside bar
I work six days a week
From seven to three
There are guys who just started
Who make more than me
Cause they went to college
While I went to war
They got bachelors degrees
I got this purple heart

Chorus
I gave up on dreaming
A long time ago
If nightmares were dollars
I'd be Ross Perot
If hard times was religion
I'd be the Pope
I'd trade this stupid medal
For a drink and a smoke

When I married Wanda
We had some big plans
She wanted to raise a family
While I farmed her daddy's land
But the bank came calling
And they took that land away
So I took a job at the mill
The work is steady and the wages are OK
In fifteen years I'll be sixty
And qualify for the union plan
I'm not sure if I'll make it
I already feel like an old man
So bartender pour me another
I've still got some dollars to spend
And a week from this Friday
I'll have some dollars again

Chorus
But I gave up on dreaming
A long time ago
If nightmares were dollars
I'd be Ross Perot
If hard times was religion
I'd be the Pope
I'd this stupid medal
For a drink and a smoke

Yeah things have been tough
Since I got my discharge
But compared to where I've been
It ain't all that hard
I saw good friends get killed
And I'm not sure what for
I fought for my country
But it wasn't my war
Now all I have to show
For all I've been through
Is this old purple heart
All battered and bruised
The clouds are gathering
I guess that means it might rain
The weather changes every so often
But me I stay the same



Copyright 1999
Kent Newsome & Ronnie Jeffrey
All Rights Reserved