We met out in the desert when we were sixteen,
Chasing sunsets, chasing some kind of dream.
He’d knock on my door with a crooked smile,
We’d sit at the table, play Uno a while.
Laughed ‘til the night faded into the dawn,
But the path he was walking was already drawn.
One night he said, “I just want to feel it all,
Every high, every rush, every dangerous fall.”
I told him, “That ain’t me, I’ve got a different plan,
That road’s yours alone, I can’t hold your hand.”
He took that flame and let it burn too wild,
While I held on to love, settled down with a child.
Two roads, same start, but the lines got crossed,
I built a life, he stayed broken and lost.
I chose love, turned it into a home,
He chased fire ‘til it left him alone.
I wish I could’ve saved him, but I know too well—
I built a future, he built a cell.
Every time he got out, I was waiting there,
With a ride, with a job, just showing I cared.
But the needle called louder than any friend’s voice,
And the truth was simple—it was always his choice.
They called it “life on the installment plan,”
One short taste of freedom, then the cuffs again.
Could I have dragged him back, could I have changed his mind?
Or was he too far gone from that very first time?
The drugs stole his soul before the sickness came,
But he was my brother, and I still feel the pain.
And I’ll never forget the boy I knew,
Sitting at my table with a deck of cards and the truth.
Two roads, same start, but the lines got crossed,
I built a life, he stayed broken and lost.
I chose love, turned it into a song,
He chose shadows, didn’t live too long.
His road ended in a cell with a whisper and cough,
Mine keeps rolling, but I carry the cost.
Two kids, sixteen—laughing under desert skies.
Two lives, two roads—one lived, one died.
And no matter how far this highway goes,
I’ll always see him standing there… at the crossroads
nightwerks
