The asphalt looks like dehydrated crust
More cracks than there is solid ground
And bombed out buildings like shadowy husks
With their broken glass scattered round
This place was a town that bustled with life
With traffic and commerce and laughter
What's left is a shadow quiet with strife
An afterlife without an after
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing tanks, burning trenches
You see endless lists of anonymous names
Silent spirits sitting on benches
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing hearts, crying mothers
You see endless lists of anonymous names
They were sons and brothers and fathers
The desiccated soil is covered in stumps
Gray and black, no green to be found
And the bombed out craters are ringed with earth clumps
A thousand men's resting ground
These were fertile fields filled with plentiful crops
With tractors and harvests and farmers
What's left is just a lifeless blacktop
And the metal of broken armor
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing tanks, burning trenches
You see endless lists of anonymous names
Silent spirits sitting on benches
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing hearts, crying mothers
You see endless lists of anonymous names
They were sons and brothers and fathers
An old woman plods by a broken wing
Picking her way through shards of cement
A baby orphan cries in the howling wind
That batters makeshift refugee tents
This was a neighborhood not long ago
A home for families and friends
What's left is smoldering ruins and afterglow
And a question of when does it end
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing tanks, burning trenches
You see endless lists of anonymous names
Silent spirits sitting on benches
Oh what do you see in the eternal flame
You see blazing hearts, crying mothers
You see endless lists of anonymous names
They were sons and brothers and fathers