The Soldier & The Boy - (9-1-2016) [Live in Madison]

I heard the story of the soldier and the boy

Not too long ago, there was a soldier in Afghanistan

And he's about six months into his campaign

And he's really struggling, he's in and out of combat every day

He's drinking a lot

And he keeps hearing from the townspeople that there's this boy

There's this magical boy, and he's meditating under a tree

And most of the time when he hears it

He says, "Ah, it's a bunch of bullshit"

But one night, he's especially missing home

And he's drinking, and he thinks, "I'm gonna

Go find this fucking boy under the tree"

So he climbs up the mountain

And sure enough, there's a little kid, maybe ten or eleven years old

And he's sitting under the tree cross-legged

With his eyes closed

And the soldier says, "Hello"

The boy doesn't move

The soldier starts to get mad

He says, "You don't know!

If you know so much, teach me about Heaven and Hell!"

The boy opens his eyes slowly

And he says, "You want me to teach you about Heaven and Hell?

Look at you! You smell bad! You're not a real soldier!

You got dip in your mouth, you reek of alcohol, you're drunk!

I can't teach you about Heaven and Hell!"

And the soldier's getting madder and madder

The veins in his neck are starting to poke out

He takes his revolver out, and points it at the boy's head

And the boy says, "That's Hell"

The soldier realizes this boy has just sacrificed his life

He put it on the line to teach him

He puts the gun down and he starts to cry

And the boy says, "That's Heaven"

My name's Mike Posner, we're the Mike Posner Band, thank you guys