Fragile Peace and Certain War

We're lighting up our cigarettes

Three smokes on every match

Tempting fate and bad luck

We're impossible to catch

Sell a grain of truth

In a sandbag full of lies

Nobody weighs it anyway

When it's all they want to buy

I've seen men go down for less

They don't come back from these trenches

Both sides have fought all day

Now we're clearing out the benches

The enemy has Zippos

They don't need your matches anymore

& we're standing on the precipice

Between fragile peace and certain war

I hate the weight of my gun

To have to wear it don't seem fair

I'd like to melt it down

Into a shiny new plowshare

But this soil ain't fit for tilling

& the water ain't fit to drink

I'm trying to be a good soldier

But I've been pushed past the brink

In three days we'll be evicted

God knows where we'll go

I gotta get some money

& the legal way is too slow

I don't want to be this desperate

I don't want to rob this store

I'm standing on the precipice

Of fragile peace and certain war

I long to live in peace

That's so much more than lack of violence

But right now we see injustice

And our collective response is silence

We have to lift each other up

Or lay scattered on the floor

We're all struggling on the precipice

Of fragile peace and certain war

Funny there's no money

When poor kids need some food

We'll subsidize the richest man

To drown in cheaper crude

Jamie's off to college

Jaime's bound for jail

You say that's the price for freedom

I say freedom's not for sale

Charlatans and preachers

Recruiting day & night

It's just as well, it's hard to tell

Who's really on your side

The rich don't have the answers

Neither do the poor

We're all standing on the precipice

Of fragile peace

...and certain war