Finding God In the Music: John Brown

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shoreHis mama sure was proud of him!He stood so straight and tall in his uniform and allHis mama’s face broke out into a grin“Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mineMake me proud to know you’re wearing a gunDo what the captain says, lots of medals you will getWe’ll put them on the wall when you come home”That old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shoutTelling everybody in the neighborhood“That’s my son that’s about to go, he’s a soldier now, you know”She made well sure her neighbors understoodShe got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smileShe showed them to the people from next doorShe bragged about her son with his uniform and gunIn this thing she called a good old-fashioned warThen the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not comeCeased to come for about ten months or moreThen a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the trainYour son is coming back from the war”She smiled and she went right down, she looked up and all aroundBut she did not see her soldier son in sightWhen all the people passed, she saw her son at lastWhen she did she could not believe her eyesOh his face was all shot off and his hands were blown awayAnd he wore a metal brace around his waistHe whispered kind of slow, in a voice she didn’t knowAnd she couldn’t even recognize his face!“Oh tell me, my darling son, tell me what they’vd doneHow is it that you come to be this way?”He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly moveAnd the mother had to turn her face away“Don’t you remember, Ma, when I went off to warYou thought it was the best thing I could do?I was on the battleground, you were home acting proudYou wasn’t there standing in my shoes”“Well, I thought when I was there, Lord, what am I doing here?Tryin’ to kill somebody or die tryin’But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came closeI could see that his face looked just like mine”“And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stinkI was just a puppet in a playAnd through the roar and smoke, the string it finally brokeAnd a cannonball blew my eyes away”As he turned away to go, his mother was acting slowSeeing the metal brace that helped him standBut as he turned to leave, he called his mother closeAnd he dropped his medals down into her hands