[Verse 1]
Mom said before the war
You carried your guitar everywhere.
Bus stations.
Street corners.
Little bars nobody remembers now.
A notebook full of songs.
A head full of plans.
You talked about the future
Like it already had your name on it.
I found old photographs.
You were smiling in every one.
Standing with friends.
Holding that same guitar.
Looking like nothing in the world
Could take it away.
[Pre-Chorus]
Then the letters came.
Then the train left.
Then the photographs changed.
[Chorus]
I never met the man before the war.
I only met the stories.
The one who laughed.
The one who sang.
The one they still talk about.
I never met the man before the war.
I met the years after.
I met the silence.
I met the scars.
[Verse 2]
Mom said when you came home
Something stayed gone.
You still had the same face.
The same name.
The same voice.
But everybody noticed.
The music got quieter.
The drinking got louder.
The crowds got smaller.
The anger got bigger.
Your friends talked about
The good old days.
Your family talked about
The bad nights.
And somehow
They were talking about the same man.
[Pre-Chorus]
Some blamed the war.
Some blamed you.
I wasn’t there.
I only know what survived.
[Chorus]
I never met the man before the war.
I only met the stories.
The dreamer.
The musician.
The father trying to hold on.
I never met the man before the war.
I met the years after.
I met the damage.
I met the cost.
[Bridge]
I found your records in a cardboard box.
Dust on every cover.
I played them one by one.
Trying to hear the person
Everybody missed.
Trying to find the distance
Between who you were
And who you became.
Maybe people don’t break all at once.
Maybe it happens slowly.
One disappointment.
One mistake.
One regret at a time.
Until the person in the mirror
Looks like somebody else.
[Final Chorus]
I never met the man before the war.
But I hear him in the records.
I hear him in the stories.
I hear him in the spaces
People still don’t talk about.
I never met the man before the war.
But sometimes late at night
When the music starts spinning
I think he’s still here.
[Outro]
Maybe that’s why
Mom never threw the records away.
Maybe she was holding onto
The part of you
The world couldn’t take.
(Harmonica enters softly)
[Young Joseph – distant voice]
I thought I had more time…
I thought I’d make it home…
One more song…
Then I’ll come home…
(Harmonica continues)
[Sarani]
I think I finally found you.
(Harmonica fades into silence)
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