Certain moments in life seem to stick out like bone fragments.
Whether beautiful or tragic, humans have a habit
of obsessing over and wrestling with memories in hopes of them freezing.
Dancing and screaming in flames; it makes him wish he were dreaming.
Never thought about the conflict, it seemed more like a fable,
plus all that peace talk nonsense doesn't put food on the table.
He was willing and able bodied when he read the contract and signed it;
but looking back on it he knows he didn't read the fine print.
Time went out the window when he went into boot camp,
and dialogue with people back home only happened with a stamp.
He'd go through basic training, and he'd go through enemy gun spray,
but nothing could prepare the things he'd see that day.
Of course they'd wash away the blood, napalm, and tears;
but he'd remember the fear in their eyes for the rest of his years.
He covered ears and of this he is ashamed,
He's convinced that remembering their screams of pain might make their deaths less in vain.

You can't just be a witness, you can't just stand by;
He looked into their eyes and watched them die for a lie.
He saw it, he lives it, he knows he'll never get away.
Cause if you see it then you live it, and the pain is there to stay.

Then the pain is there to stay.
Then the pain is there to stay,
and you can't wash it away!
It's like the pain is there to stay.

Soft emotions, he sits now crossing oceans in his mind
to find a burning flame of light he watched define his cries.
He cries out for help, but the hell he felt will never feel better than the guilt.
Thought he was doing good when bad things happened,
but it happens to be that life will treat you with no special insights
to the fight of our fathers, mothers, brothers.
Lovers and Gods lost the concept of loving the conflict,
congregate around a constant state of hateful leader-
ship out to sea and never comeback to me.
Never come back to an understanding out there trying to figure out why
change must happen in this strangest way it's nonsense, but I'll remember this today:
That love will hate, and life will kill,
and you don't know it; but that's not the reason we all feel
down on our luck stuck in a depression, obsession
with never letting go of the memories of lives you lost,
never letting go of the memories of lives lost.

You can't just be a witness, you can't just stand by;
He looked into their eyes and watched them die for a lie.
He saw it, he lives it, he knows he'll never get away.
Cause if you see it then you live it, and the pain is there to stay.

Then the pain is there to stay.
Then the pain is there to stay,
and you can't wash it away!
It's like the pain is there to stay.