Ragged Old Flag
I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there. I
Said, “Your old courthouse is kinda run down.”
He said, “Nah, It’ll do for our little town.”
I said, “Your flagpole has leaned a little bit, And
That’s a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.
He said, “Have a seat,” and I sat down.
“ Is this the first time you’ve been to our little town?”
“I said, I think so.” He said, “I don’t like to brag,
But were kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag
“You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott
Key
Sat watching it writing – O Say Can You See-
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson, tuggin at its
Seams.
“And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through,
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew harder on the Ragged Old
‘Flag.
“On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.”
“She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they’ve quit waving back here at home
In her own good land she’s been abused
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied and refused.
And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she’s in good shape for the shape she is in.
“Cause she’s been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.”
“So we raise her up every morning
Take her down every night.
We don’t let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought, I DO like to brag
“:Cause I am mighty proud of that
Ragged Old Flag”
—Written by Johnny Cash
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