[Verse 1]
The whistle cut the morning
Like a blade through frozen air
Twenty minutes borrowed
From the weight of all this fear
I ran with my red satchel
Past the smoke and shattered steel
Counting breaths and seconds
Trying not to think or feel
One hand pressed a bandage
One hand pulled a stretcher through
Everybody bleeding
Everybody someone’s truth
And for a little moment
The guns forgot their song
Like the world remembered mercy
Before remembering it was wrong
[Verse 2]
I found you by the ridgeline
Half buried in the clay
Your rifle lay forgotten
A few feet away
The patch upon your shoulder
Didn’t matter anymore
I’ve seen too many colors
On too many fields of war
The blood was dark and shining
The same as every man
The wound spoke plain and honest
Before I touched my hand
I checked for some small miracle
Some thread that I could save
But all I found was borrowed time
And courage I could gave
What struck me as I knelt there
Was something I still know
We’re all the same beneath the skin
Red rivers, flesh and bone
No border in your heartbeat
No flag inside your veins
Just somebody’s son still breathing
Through impossible pain
[Chorus]
I had no miracle left to give
No way to turn the tide
No stitch to mend what war had torn
No place for you to hide
So I tipped my canteen to your lips
And held your trembling hand
If I could not bring you home alive
I’d stay as long as I can
And when the siren called my name
Across that shattered land
You were not an enemy
You were just a man
[Bridge]
The warning sounded once again
A cry across the plain
Voices shouting, “Move now!”
As the sky turned sharp with rain
The first arrows found the daylight
And instinct took command
I threw myself above you
Before I understood I ran
For one brief breath I covered you
As if that still could save
As if my back could bargain
With the promise of your grave
Then another horn came calling
And another volley flew
I felt your fingers loosen
And I knew
[Final Verse]
They called me from the ridgeline
Voices breaking through
Another dozen wounded
Waiting somewhere beyond you
My hands would not obey me
My knees stayed in the mud
As if the world had narrowed
To your face and all that blood
I said a prayer I don’t remember
I spoke a name I never knew
Then I stood and turned away
Because I had to
[Final Chorus]
I had no miracle left to give
No way to change your fate
So I gave the only thing I could
And stayed until too late
And when the sirens called again
Across that shattered land
You were not an enemy
You were just a man
And every face I’ve carried since
Still brings me back to then
To the day I learned that mercy
Can’t always save a friend
[Outro]
The horn still finds me
Some nights in my sleep
And somewhere in the silence
I still see your eyes
Not enemy
Not stranger
Just human
Brigids_Hearth
