What he left behind

He came home in the winter Snow was falling on the road His wife stood in the doorway As he slowly dropped his coat She held him like she'd promised He held her like before But his eyes kept looking somewhere Far beyond their bedroom door He left something behind Where the smoke covered the sky He brought his body home But not everything inside He left something behind With the ones who couldn't leave And every night he closes his eyes He goes back there in his dreams His son was getting older He wanted Dad to play So they kicked a ball together On a quiet Saturday For a while he started laughing Like the man he used to be Then a helicopter crossed the sky And brought him to his knees He left something behind Where the smoke covered the sky He brought his body home But not everything inside He left something behind With the ones who couldn't leave And every night he closes his eyes He goes back there in his dreams There's one name he never mentions One face he always sees A brother who stood next to him When neither one could breathe He said, If you make it home, man Don't spend your life with me Go hold your wife and raise your boy And live enough for three For years those words were heavy Like a stone against his chest Till one morning by the window He finally let himself confess I miss you, brother I wish you were here But I can't keep dying Year after year He walked outside that morning His little boy took his hand They watched the sun come rising Without needing to understand He left something behind And some of it will always stay But love was waiting for him On this side of yesterday He left something behind But he still has life to live And maybe honoring the ones we lose Means loving what they gave us So he held his son a little closer As the morning filled the sky And for once he remembered his brother Without asking himself why