This poem/tune is from Suzzy and Maggie Roche's wonderful album Zero Church, Words written by Bill Barbeau, who was a marine scout dog handler in Vietnam and is now a firefighter in Somerville, MA:

A Prayer

This is to the being I know as God

God please help me to be a better human being.

As a young man, I killed a lot of people for no good reason!
What became no good reason!

I would love to blame someone else, anyone else for how I feel about what I did, the killing.

What I thought I had to do to survive to be a good American like my dad.

I must have had other choices
I know I had other choices

Forgive me

I will try to do good things to my fellow human beings like nursing,
Fighting fires and save lives. It's what I know.

Until you call for me, or whatever way you use to make this pain end.
God; you can take me anytime!

Marylea and I have been talking with the Roches about making a stop in Olympia on their west coast travels to do a benefit concert to support Beyond Hiroshima, the group behind the Oly Nuke-Free Ordinance.  We couldn't get it scheduled for their tour in December (they will be in Portland and Seattle - don't miss them, they are wonderful).  Hoping to have them sing to us in fall of 2007.