[Newspoetry] Collateral Damage Family Blues

[Paul Kotheimer]

Collateral Damage Family Blues

	(A slow, smooth 12-bar riff in the key of A)

Grampa was at Midway back in Fifty-four.
He flew in Operation Ivy, playin' neuclear war,
and he got the blues--those radium-and-cobalt blues.
If you was in his shoes,
You'd know those fightin' sailor's red, white, and blues.

And Uncle Dave was stationed south of P-Nom Penh.
They tramped him through the jungle, then they shipped him home again,
and he got the blues--those Agent-Orange-flashback blues.
It's not somethin' you'd choose,
Those buddy's-in-a-body-bag blues.

Now, Momma was in Panama, and Dad was in Kuwait
in Operation Desert Storm.  His courage there was great,
but he got the blues--those top-secret-biotoxin blues.
If you was in his shoes,
You'd know the fightin' soldiers' red, white, and blues.

(Instrumental break, with vocal ad libs:

	[Bill Clinton on saxophone, Ladies and Gentlemen.
	That man plays it so smooth, 
	you can't even remember where the bombs are falling...] )

Me, I spent my childhood in a video game.
At Air Force Fighter Pilot school they said it'd be just the same,
but now I got the blues--those old civilian-casualties blues.
I got those Kandahar-Jalalabad, 
Daisy-Cuttin' red, white, and blues.


--paulkotheimer:)
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