When he was young he use to play with toy guns
He'd say it was for fun but really it was the feel of it
He acted silly but Billy loved the appeal of it
Though its just plastic his roles got drastic
Sound effects would blow he'd black mask it
Around his neck would glow that classic Rambo medallion
He use to dream of Lambo's Italian Mafioso Commando battalions
He would lead them through the dark of winter
He would leave them when his mom had started dinner
At the table with his bleeding elbows
Even when eating he needed his GI Joe's
By his side guarding his pride
A soldier or a poet it got harder to decide
The fun ends as the evening unravels
A young mans ego so fragile
A now he's hitting his teens still drifting in between
Wanting to be a writer wanting to be a fighter
He's starting to wonder which was mightier
And found one
The difference between Martin and Malcolm
He couldn't see it in the outcome
They didn't live to see it
Now how come
Was the thought he saw the ones who fought
He saw the ones who got caught in their cross fire
His boss fired him and the cause
He was reading Che Guevara instead of him parking cars
Who writes the laws who enforces them
Born to win born to loose born again
Mortal men with an ego so fragile
Reading as the meaning unravels
Was it a bullet to the head or the words to the brain
That brought about more change
It's been a long time
It's been a long time since the toy guns and the acting bigger
Active trigger now he a real action figure
The military made it harder to decide
A soldier and a poet now the poet guards his pride
You see his views we see them on the evening news
We read the words found hidden in his BDU's
We loose sight with an eye for an eye
Were the last words written on the night that he died
In a book they gave to his son the day he turned 21
The day he learned of young men who have come to an end
Of his father who held his gun but held harder to his pen
A martyr born again every time his book was opened
And the mind that provoked it
Was it the words from his hands or the bullet from a gun
That kept a man alive for his son
It's been a long time
