"Old Soldier Rag"

Yonder on the old white porch

The American  flag waves on a pole

Misty eyes stare from rocking chairs

As old war stories are told

Old soldiers of a time gone past

Still proud as they can be

To have fought for honor and freedom

For the land of liberty

They sit there in their tattered cloths

hair tousled in the wind

Tears flow freely with hands over hearts

As the Star Spangled Banner begins

These old salts have borne the scars

That time could never heal

They know the cost of  freedom

That only those who fought can feel

America  may not be much to some

But it means the world to me

And if you cant live under our Flag

It might be time for you to leave

Old Soldiers have lived and died

On foreign lands and on the seas

You cant always trust Uncle Sam

But in these old boys I believe

Red white and blue flows through their veins

And the Eagle gives them flight

their colors may be a little faded

but they have earned their stripes

They fought on the frozen Chosin

Iwo Jima and Khe Sanh

They stormed the beach at Normandy

Fought in the trenches from dusk till dawn

Though their clothes are a bit tattered

And their hair has gone to gray

Each one in their own mind

are back in their twenties today

Hearts still beating strong

To the drums of the parade

As they remember those who went on before

On this Memorial day

Old Soldiers have lived and died

On foreign lands and on the seas

You cant always trust Uncle Sam

But in these old boys I believe

Red white and blue flows through their veins

And the Eagle gives them flight

Their colors may be a little faded

But they have earned their stripes

"Their colors may be a little faded

But they have earned their stripes"

Boondocker 5/22/02