The war came home

The War Came Home

He wakes up sweating at a quarter past two,

With a rifle in his dreams and a sky turning blue,

He reaches for the darkness, but the darkness ain’t gone,

There’s a war in his bedroom before the night moves on.

He hears a gunshot from a car down the street,

And he’s right back in the desert, feeling sand underneath,

His heart starts racing like he’s nineteen again,

But the battle’s been over for what feels like a lifetime since then.

He tells everybody, “I’m doing alright,”

Then he fights his demons till the morning light.

The war came home, and it won’t let him go,

Lives in his head like a fire down below,

Every loud sound makes him hit the floor,

Every nightmare takes him back to the war.

He’s losing sleep, he’s losing time,

One more night from losing his mind,

He survived the bullets, but the memories won’t die,

And he’s fighting a battle that nobody sees inside.

There’s a picture on the mantle from a long time ago,

Four young men smiling before they had to go,

Three came back, but they weren’t the same,

And one never made it home to hear them call his name.

He keeps his back to the wall when he walks into a room,

Checks every window, listens for the boom,

His wife says, “Baby, you’re safe here with me,”

But he’s staring through the ceiling at a place she can’t see.

He says, “I’m sorry,” when she catches him awake,

She says, “You don’t have to carry this alone for my sake.”

The war came home, and it won’t let him go,

Lives in his head like a fire down below,

Every loud sound makes him hit the floor,

Every nightmare takes him back to the war.

He’s losing sleep, he’s losing time,

One more night from losing his mind,

He survived the bullets, but the memories won’t die,

And he’s fighting a battle that nobody sees inside.

Some nights he hears the screaming,

Some nights he smells the smoke,

Some nights he swears he’s holding

The hand of the man he couldn’t save.

He says, “God, I’m getting tired,

I don’t know how much I can take.”

Then a voice comes through the darkness:

“You’re still here. Stay awake.”

So he sits there in the silence,

With his head between his hands,

Trying to make peace with a war

He never could understand.

He knows the enemy is gone,

But the battlefield remains,

And every night when he closes his eyes,

He hears those gunshots again.

The war came home, but he ain’t alone,

There’s still a light shining through the cracks in his soul,

He’s losing sleep, but he’s holding on,

Learning how to live with the battles he’s fought.

He survived the bullets, he survived the pain,

And maybe tomorrow won’t feel quite the same,

The war may be over, but healing takes time,

And tonight he’s still fighting—

But tonight, he’s alive.

He hears a gunshot…

His eyes open wide…

Then he hears her whisper,

“You’re home, soldier.

You’re home tonight.”