The Grave - Don McLean

The grave that they dug him had flowers

Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colours

And the brown earth bleached white at the edge of his gravestone

He’s gone

When the wars of our nation did beckon

A man barely twenty did answer the calling

Proud of the trust that he placed in our nation

He’s gone

But Eternity knows him, and it knows what we’ve done

And the rain fell like pearls on the leaves of the flowers

Leaving brown, muddy clay where the earth had been dry

And deep in the trench he waited for hours

As he held to his rifle and prayed not to die

But the silence of night was shattered by fire

As guns and grenades blasted sharp through the air

And one after another his comrades were slaughtered

In a morgue of Marines, alone standing there

He crouched ever lower, ever lower with fear

«They can’t let me die!

They can’t let me die here!

I’ll cover myself with the mud and the earth

I’ll cover myself!

I know I’m not brave!

The earth!

the earth!

the earth is my grave.»

The grave that they dug him had flowers

Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colours

And the brown earth bleached white at the edge of his gravestone

He’s gone