I Was a Photograph Lyrics

Sky the color of a match been struck
Sun just hangin' like the noose got stuck
And you can try to stare it back down
But you can't cover it up
Red dirt rising 'til it fills your lungs
Your hand's the bullet and your heart's the gun
And you learned how to turn your back on almost anything
But you never learned to run

You've seen the ditches where the dead get left
And the hungry cats in the hollow chests
And you can pin your eyes shut, boy
But you can't get no rest
Hell, its just bones scattered in the dust
And it don't mean nothing to the TV trucks
'Til it's real American boys
Spittin' up real American blood

In Charlie company, first thing you're taught
Is you ain't worth half of what you thought
And just like everything else I learned
I couldn't shut it off
So I felt like nothing when I got back home
And my father saw me in my granddad's clothes
And said, "you inherit my blood, boy
But your sins are all your own"

I don't sleep like I did before
I just wake up trembling on the bedroom floor
Always seven steps from the ghosts
On the other side of that door
Wondering, what did I do to earn another day
'Cause I don't confess, sure as hell don't pray
I just defend, attack, withdraw
And delay

You know my face, I was a photograph
On the front page, 'neath the headline war
And I was numb back then, boy
I ain't even numb no more

( For Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller )