THE SUN SETS ON NUI BA DEN

Mountain slopes and fishing boats
Line the Nha Trang Bay
Rising from the jungle's fog
Half a world away

The Cao Dai eye, with dragon's fire
Protects the temple gates
Looking out on Vietnam
The war where the sun never sets

From Cambodia, headed east
As the crow flies, eleven miles
The rice patties there get bombed to hell
When the sky goes up in fire

I don't waste my time with God
He'd kill me if I'd die
I believe only in air support
Wild-eyed angels from the sky

Buddhist temples and banana groves
Rise from the lowland heat
I hear the beasts in the jungle roar
In the place where no one sleeps

All souls run together in the Mekong Delta
The sky, she holds back the rain
The dragon returns, breathing fire
The jungle's on fire again

We walk through hell, holding onto our souls
Our wounds are open wide
Air support is getting close
Descending like gods from the sky

Our empire has a thirst for blood
And an appetite for gold
It's not enough to die out here
They also want your soul

I found a way to heaven
Cutting hell with the opium white
On top of the Black Virgin Mountain
I've seen the all-seeing eye

I sleep under a foreign moon
And sweat under a strange, sad sun
I know I won't be leaving here
Should I make it home

This place, it takes your soul away
And every time I sleep
I feel the hands upon my throat
That stole my soul from me

I see the clouds glowing opium white
In the mountains, so far away
The sun, it sets on Nui Ba Den
Half a world away.