Warrior Lyrics - Steve Earle

This is the best time of the day?the dawn 

The final cleansing breath unsullied yet 

By acrid fume or death?s cacophony 

The rank refuse of unchained ambition 

And pray, deny me not but know me now, 

Your faithful retainer stands resolute 

To serve his liege lord without recompense 

Perchance to fall and perish namelessly 

No flag-draped bier or muffled drum to set 

The cadence for a final dress parade 

But it was not always thus?remember? 

Once you worshipped me and named me a god 

In many tongues and made offering lest 

I exact too terrible a tribute 

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Take heed for I am weary, ancient 

And decrepit now and my time grows short 

There are no honorable frays to join 

Only mean death dealt out in dibs and dabs 

Or horror unleashed from across oceans 

Assail me not with noble policy 

For I care not at all for platitude 

And surrender such tedious detail 

To greater minds than mine and nimbler tongues 

Singular in their purpose and resolve 

And presuming to speak for everyman 

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Oh, for another time, a distant field 

And there a mortal warrior?s lonely grave 

But duty charges me remain until 

The end the last battle of the last war 

Until that ?morrow render unto me 

That which is mine my stipend well deserved 

The fairest flower of your progeny 

Your sons, your daughters your hopes and your dreams 

The cruel consequence of your conceit