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C. Daniel Boling: Listen to Music

I Brought the War with Me

(C. Daniel Boling)
April 15, 2016
©C. Daniel Boling - Perfectly Stable Music / ASCAP

Brave men and women from the Albuquerque, New Mexico organization Full Battle Rattle -- veterans of the Middle East wars and their spouses -- told me some of their experiences at war and after coming back home. This song draws on those conversations. 

I BROUGHT THE WAR WITH ME                                  

 

My mind is a worn out hotel

But every room’s full every night of the year

I really wish I could invite you all in

But there’s no space for any more here

 

Everything I lived through in Iraq

Inside and outside of the wire

Lives in my head – wells up in my heart

Gnawing, unquenchable fire

 

Most of the time I can hold it at bay

Make folks who don’t know me believe I’m OK

I never faced battle completely alone

Till I brought the war with me when I came back home

 

Innocent trash on the roadside for you

Is a reason to panic for me

Some loser got lazy you figure

I figure it looks like a damn I.E.D.

 

Must have used up all that courage I had

Over there fighting the war

Back home now lying in my own bed

Can’t walk out my own front door

 

But most of the time I can hold it at bay

Make folks who don’t know me believe I’m OK

I never faced battle completely alone

Till I brought the war with me when I came back home

 

I honor my brothers and sisters who fight

We rally to each other’s need

But there is no honor among politicians

Who think every wound has to bleed

 

I never faced battle completely alone

Till I brought the war with me when I came back home

 

C. Daniel Boling – guitar and vocal

Ali Mohammad - changg and shank

Shakoor Fakir - kamacho

(traditional instruments of Pakistan)