Memento Mori Patti Smith

The fan whirling like the blades of a copter
Lifting into the skies above a foreign land
Fire and iron soaked with the bodies of so many friends
Johnny waved. He was on his way home
He waved good-bye to his comrades in arms
And all the twisted things he had seen
He waved good-bye
And the blades hit something
Maybe just fate but the blades hit
The copter went up in flames
And Johnny never went marching home
And Johnny never went marching home
They took his name and they carved it on a slab of marble
With several thousand other names
All the fallen idols
The apples of their mother's eye
Just another name

Meanwhile back on the burning shore
Johnny's comrades stood speechless
They looked with misbelieving eyes
Cause there were bits of metal and the embers
The embers of his eyes fanned out in the air
Black dust flames. Oh Johnny
Someday they'll make a movie about you
And in the making of that movie, some mad apocalypse
It will become even stranger than the simple act
Just a boy going up. Up. Up
Just a boy going. Up. Up