The quiet refuge she creates in her mind,
she locks the door and leaves the war behind
He grabs his keys and speeds away in his car,
but runnin’ never gets him very far

Hard-workin’ parents but just too hard to please,
they saved to give me opportunities
To them the world is here to crush and confound,
a barbaric, uninspiring, battleground

Depressed and jaded by the world that they see,
I just wish for once that they’d believe in me
I see a road that’s all horizon and sky,
a yearning this old town can’t satisfy

A flag and medal and a signed PMC,
a tax-free, one-time, death gratuity
My daughter’s wedding, in a word ‘bittersweet’,
they raise their glasses to an empty seat

In equal measure both the hero and fool,
‘try to move on’ becomes the family rule
Words fill the vacuum like wind through the trees,
meaningless monuments and eulogies

Our days on Earth are numbered, we don’t see it in our youth,
but alone here on my island I can sense the hidden truth
A prisoner to my actions, all the things ‘I had to do’,
an orgy of distractions that took me away from you
Inflexible opinions and my idiotic pride,
are all I have to show for all this emptiness inside
Appreciation unexpressed, the things I should have said, to the voices in my head