ELI CREEKMORE

 

There are soldiers in this country, with their chins on windowsills

They’re too young to tote a gun, and too old for us to kill.

I’ve seen their eyes in checkout lines, then I wonder where do they go?

The people I see every day in the street

I suppose some of them know.

Now some are the daughters of little girls, or the sons of wicked ones

Long before they ever learn to walk, they’ve gotta learn to run

It wasn’t love but fear that brought them here, so they know no love at all

And they always go to the only home they know

Where the darkest shadows fall.

Now we can cover our ears and close our eyes, what we don’t know we can’t tell

But I wonder anyway how long we’re gonna say, “Oh well, oh well, oh well.”

Now maybe you’re to blame, and maybe you’re not, but have you seen the truth unfold?

It was a Saturday night, there was a terrible fight

Between a father and a 4-year-old.

Eli died with a fist in his eye, whose fist, well it’s hard to say

But his heart was the size of his old man’s eyes, when the doc said, “DOA.”

Eli’s mama never liked the way that his daddy taught him how to sing

How the human mind can get so out of line

Has surely got me wondering.