Crooked Smile

In the little town where I grew up

And my childhood came and went

Was a dark-haired girl with a crooked smile

With whom my days were often spent

And I never gave much thanks to luck

When we'd count the stars at night

Well after fourteen years of war broke out

And they shipped me off to fight

I felt a taste of honor, until it finally hit me why

I'm too poor to dodge, and too young to vote

But I ain't too young to die

And that night I wept in darkness

Alone and on my knees

Clenched my hands as hard as they could squeeze

I'd never even kissed that girl

And I'd never fired a gun

And I always thought you couldn't be a man

Until the age of twenty-one

Seems the only thing I knew for sure

Is that they wouldn't take what's mine

So I set my thoughts on anything

That stepped across the line

And the first time I killed a man, I felt it in my chest

And many nights I saw his face until it blurred in with the rest

I felt no trace of honor when it finally came with ease

Instead I knelt down in the mud and begged him please

Take me home to see my mother

Take me home away from here

Don't let me die so young and broken

And surrounded by the smell of death and fear

I lost count along the way of ones I put in graves

But every one took a little more from a heart I couldn't save

And all the things I did out there were the furthest thing from law

So I screamed myself awake most nights and relived the things I saw

And if I could have just one last prayer, than the last thing I would see

Would be the dark-haired girl with the crooked smile

As she waved goodbye at me

But I never had much luck with prayers, I did even worse with pleas

But I'll be God-damned if I die here on my knees

I'm going home to see my mother

I'm going home away from here

I ain't going to die alone and broken

Or forsaken under skies full of despair