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J ohn Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore.
His mama sure was p roud of h im!
He s tood so straight and tall in his uniform and all.
His mama's face broke o ut int o a gri n.
" Oh son you look so fine I'm glad you're a son of mine
You make me proud t o know you h old a g un.
Do w hat the captain says lots of medals you will get
And we'll put them on the wall whe n yo u get h ome."
T hat old train pulled out John's ma began to shout
Tellin' ev'rybody in the neighb orhood:
"Tha t's my son that's about to go he's a soldier now you know."
She made well sure he r neighbors und erstood .
S he got a letter once in a while her face broke into a smile
she showed them to the people from next d oor.
she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun
And these things you c alled a good ol d-fashi oned war.
T hen the letters ceased to come for a long time they did not come.
ceased to come for about ten months o r more.
Then a letter finally came saying "Go down and meet the train.
Your son is coming ba ck from the war ."
S he smiled and she went right down she looked up and all around
But she did not see her soldier son in sig ht.
When all the people passed she saw her son at last
When she did she coul d not believe h er eyes .
O h his face was all shot off and his hand were blown away
And he wore a metal br ace around hi s waist .
He w hispered kind of slow in a voice she didn't know
While she couldn't ev en recognize hi s face!
" Oh tell me my darling son tell me what they done.
How is it you come to be thi s way?"
He t ried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And his mother had to turn her face away.
" Don't you remember Ma when I went off to war
You thought it was th e best thing I co uld do?
I wa s on the battleground you were home acting proud.
You wasn't there stan ding in my shoe s."
" Well and I thought when I was there Lord what am I doing here?
tryin' to kill some body or di e tryin '.
But the thing that scared me most when my enemy came close
I could see that his fac e looked just lik e mine. "
" And I couldn't help but think through the thunder rolling stink
I was just a puppet in a play.
And through the roar and smoke this string it finally broke
And a cannon ball b lew my eyes awa y."
A s he turned away to go his Mother was acting slow
seein' the metal brace that helped h im stan d.
But as he turned to leave he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down int o her h and.
