[INTRO] (with harmonica)
Am C F x2
(hold the F an extra measure and walk back with root of G)
[Verse]
Am C
Sky the color of a match been struck
Am C
Sun just hangin' like the noose got stuck
Am C
And you can try to stare it back down
F G (walk base note back to Am and repeat throughout the song)
But you can't cover it up
Am C
Red dirt rising 'til it fills your lungs
Am C
Your hand's the bullet and your heart's the gun
Am C
And you learned how to turn your back on almost anything
F G
But you never learned to run
[Instrumental]
Am C F G
[Verse]
Am C
You've seen the ditches where the dead get left
Am C
And the hungry cats in the hollow chests
Am C
And you can pin your eyes shut, boy
F
But you can't get no rest
Am C
Hell, its just bones scattered in the dust
Am C
And it don't mean nothing to the TV trucks
Am C
'Til it's real American boys
F G
Spittin' up real American blood
Am C
In Charlie company, first thing you're taught
Am C
Is you ain't worth half of what you thought
Am C
And just like everything else I learned
F G
I couldn't shut it off
Am C
So I felt like nothing when I got back home
Am C
And my father saw me in my granddad's clothes
Am C
And said, "you inherit my blood, boy
F G
But your sins are all your own"
[Instrumental]
Am C F G
[Verse]
Am C
I don't sleep like I did before
Am C
I just wake up trembling on the bedroom floor
Am C
Always seven steps from the ghosts
F G
On the other side of that door
Am C
Wondering, what did I do to earn another day
Am C
'Cause I don't confess, sure as hell don't pray
Am C
I just defend, attack, withdraw
F G
And delay
Am C F
You know my face, I was a photograph
Am C F
On the front page, 'neath the headline war
Am C F
And I was numb back then, boy
Am C F
I ain't even numb no more