Barb Ryman: Music/Listen

Soldier's Daughter

*** I wrote this song to help people feel the costs of war at a personal level. I believe it’s when we feel it emotionally, that our passion & compassion move us to seek change. The war in Iraq has troubled me so deeply, arousing memories of the death of my father so many years ago. He was a casualty of the Cold War, and not many know there were casualties in that war. It was fought covertly. But war is war and my heart breaks for our soldiers and the Iraqis dying right now and the profound loss their families suffer. This song travels in the voice of the fallen soldier speaking to his daughter.*** Dedicated to the memory of Donald Arthur Bowman ***

SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER

You hardly knew me, but I am your father
I got to know you while you were a toddler
Climbing on my knee
You taught me how love could be so free

You are my daughter and I was a soldier
I told you and your brother who was older
That I’d be home again
But I never made it in

I was a casualty of an invisibly raging war
No national call, no mention at all
No name carved into a dark granite wall

But I still saw you from another place
I remember your beautiful face
Turning into stone
My baby girl all alone

I wanted to hold you, I wanted to cry
The thousands of tears that were locked behind your eyes
But I could not get through
Oh my child, I love you

You were a refugee of an invisibly raging war
No arms to brake your fall, no man standing tall
No Daddy’s name to call, just a photo on the wall

I saw you withdraw from your friends at play
When the conversations turned to Fathers Day
I would whisper in your ear
I’m with you, please please hear

I saw you in Washington protesting the war
As your heart was breaking for the man you adored
There was nothing I could do
As I watched history repeating in you

We were casualties of an invisibly raging war
No arms to brake our fall, no mention at all
No names carved into a dark granite wall