Steve Goodman

Oh my name is Penny Evans and my age is twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun.

And I remember I was seventeen on the day I met young Bill.
At his father's grand piano, we'd play good old "Heart and Soul".
Well, I only knew the left hand part and he the right so well.
He's the only boy I've slept with and the only one I will.

It's first we had a baby girl, and we had two good years.
It was next the 1A notice came, and we parted without tears.
It was nine months from our last good bye our second babe appears.
So it's ten months and a telegram confirming all our fears.

And now every month I get a check from an Army bureaucrat.
And it's every month I tear it up and I mail the damn thing back.
Do you think that makes it all right, do you think I'd fall for that?
You can keep your bloody money, it sure won't bring my Billy back.

I never cared for politics, and speeches I don't understand.
Likewise never took no charity from any living man.
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone in that unhappy land,
And fifty thousand "Heart and Soul"s being played with just one hand.

Well, my name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one,
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam,
And I have two infant daughters and I thank God I have no sons,
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun.