The Bear Willi Carlisle

I'm trying to remember a simpler time and place
We'd let our knees bleed into our roller skates
The rockets and the rock-fights, the white bones of a squirrel
Three acres and two dogs and a hundred tiny worlds

You were sitting on my shoulders, we were travellin as a pack
Throwing hedge apples by the railroad tracks
When a bear came from the woods, he was lookin' for a feast
He was frightened away by a two-headed beast

If the truth's a moving target, I don't want to shoot to kill
And hang it's head up in a house I didn't build
They say that love will save you, and I'm glad that we're alive
If I'm lost in the woods, I hope it's you and I

I was station first in Kandahar, at least that's what I could say
We were set to be married on your 21st birthday
The rockets and the IEDs, the white bones of a man
Nothing much to do but think in a thousand miles of sand

We were married on a Tuesday, you were comforting to me
I never mentioned much about the IEDs
But I'd lie in bed at night and I'd admit that I was scared
You'd hold me close and remind me of the bear

If the truth's a moving target, well I hope that I don't miss
Goddamn god bless the percoset and every time we kissed
They say that love will save you, I don't think that I'll survive
I'm lost in the woods with a loaded forty-five