MAN IN THE MIDDLE
KERRY PATRICK CLARK

Raise the flag stars and stripes
Boys are coming home tonight
Lights are on his room's not changed
Grandma wonders is she'll recognize his face
Through the crowd of white pressed uniforms
Looking more like men than boys who went to war

CHORUS
He's the man in the middle Thank you Lord she cried
The man in the middle I know that's my boy
Line 'em up let your mama look My baby boy done all grown up
The man in the middle I love

We all piled in the family Ford
Daddy tell me all your stories of the war
Some were brave most were scared
Were the only memories he chose to share
I said grandma kept that photograph
He said heroes are the ones who don't come back

CHORUS
He's the man in the middle Thank you Lord she cried
The man in the middle I know that's my boy
Line 'em up let your mama look My baby boy done all grown up
The man in the middle I love

He never spoke of that again
Calls would come and I would say he wasn't in
He was 36 me 16
You were there I said you don't remember anything
Finally he turned off our TV set
He told me what all happened after the photograph

CHORUS
I was the man in the middle the corpsman I was called
The man in the middle when our boys took their final fall
I've seen things I can't forget tried to block them out and yet
The man in the middle. . . the man in the middle. . .. . .