Custer's Corporal*

Well, no man never asked my starch
When we set off on our westward march.
And no winsome lass never asked me why
When I set off for to win, or die.

No Cheyenne lance never pierced my skin
So I tried it once, and then again.
I heeled my spur when the Captain yelled "Charge!"
And I was kilt right there, beside my Sarge.

They laid me down and then scalped my hair
Then they left me dead and cold and bare.
But the handsome Colonel, he died there too
And the history they teach you jus' ain't true.

Well, the stories all brag of Custer's glory
But the unvarnished truth is another story.
It was all Lakota on that day
Until they struck tent and rode away.

So, hear me clear, all'a you bold boys
And quit all'a your brave, naive noise.
Every soldier boy that goes to war
Will get what war has in store.

Enjoy your boyhood kickin' rocks 'n cans
And don't rush off to be a man.
War ain't no lark, and it ain't no game.
And if you do come home you won't be the same.

I took six arrows in my side
And a tomahawk split my skull open wide.
Their squaws pierced with needles, my young ears
In hopes in the afterlife I could not hear.

Boys, you may keep your banners and flags.
From where I sit, there's no cause to brag.
I can no more hear that bugle call.
They kilt us one, and they kilt us all.

Just a few feet above my bones
The army set me up a stone.
Now, don't you think that's petty pay
For the dreadful pain I bore that day?



*My regards to Corb Lund, whose song "I Want to be in the Cavalry" was in my mind as I wrote this poem.