Boredom and fear

John sits there almost every night
At the end of the bar, drinking red wine
Gazing at his glass, drinking to forget, trying to forget.
The uniform jacket that he wears
Is shabby and tattered and got no badge
Once he was a soldier, now he wants to forget, trying to forget.
He only speaks to order a drink
Every hour a glass of wine
And two cigarettes, time passes this way, but the past remains.
He can’t erase the pictures inside of his head
Can’t delete the memories, burned in his brain,
Can’t forget what he’d seen in that foreign land.

When he’d finished the school, he was looking for a job,
With his bad grades he didn’t find none
So he joined up the army , they assigned him a task, they gave him a home,
They taught him to fight, they taught him to slay
To defend his country, so they say,
He swore to obey, swore a gospel oath, a gospel oath
They shipped him to this strange land
Far from home and he began to ask himself
What’s to defend, what’s right or wrong?

He saw the poverty of the people over there,
There was hunger and dust, there was death in the air
And boredom and fear is a dangerous pair, a dangerous pair.
There was the brutalization of his mates
There was killing of children, there was tortures and rapes
All that didn’t deal with a gospel oath, with a gospel oath.
He quitted the service and he went home
But he never found back into his life
He wasn’t the same anymore, anymore.
He can’t erase the pictures inside of his head
Can’t delete the memories, burned in his brain,
Can’t forget what he’d seen in this foreign land.

John quaffs his wine, pays and leaves the bar,
Out on the street it’s silent dark
A peaceful night, his steps clang on the tarmac, clang on the tarmac,
There’s only one window lighted by a dim light
Maybe there’s another lost soul
Who can’t find no sleep this night, this night.

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