grayness

Once you've been fighting long enough
The inside matches outer's tough
And unforgiving armored skin
And softness is a fatal sin.

The prize of winning, so they say-
You'll live to die another day.

I watched my fellows face the night
And try to fight a stand-up fight
From this, one lesson I could take:
No sucker gets an even break.

Don't stop to hope, to fear, to pray
You'll live to die another day.

I struggled on through force of will
And took the bleak and pointless hill
My orders came, in plainest text:
Now you'll go and take the next.

When it comes to bowing out
There comes a time beyond a doubt
When you are there beyond your stay
And won't live to die another day.