Forgotten Afterfire

[Verse 1] Teeth full of soil Boots split at the seams Gun smoke in my lungs Faces tearing at the dreams Orders barked like curses Over bodies in a ditch Dog tags clink like rosaries In a hell we never picked [Chorus] We bled in the dirt for a flag in the sky Now the colors look faded and dry Forgotten afterfire Swallowed by the rain Left alone with the ghosts and the pain We bled in the dirt But the streets stay clean Every stain scrubbed out of the scene Forgotten afterfire Buried and unnamed Tell me what the hell we gained [Verse 2] Came home to quiet To fluorescent buzzing halls Needles Pills Donations Cheap paint on crumbling walls They thank us in speeches Then cut out our care We trade medals for nightmares And an empty Thousand-yard stare [Bridge] I see brothers in the bottle Sisters sleeping under steel Paper flags on stone and gravel Like the war was never real If we’re heroes why are we hungry Why are we breaking in line Why’s the country we shattered for Afraid to look us in the eyes [Chorus] We bled in the dirt for a flag in the sky Now the colors look faded and dry Forgotten afterfire Swallowed by the rain Left alone with the ghosts and the pain We bled in the dirt But the streets stay clean Every stain scrubbed out of the scene Forgotten afterfire Buried and unnamed Tell me what the hell we gained [Outro] Marching in circles On cracked concrete Saluting a silence That grinds our teeth If this is the homeland We tore ourselves through Tell me why we fought And who the war was for (not you)