Next One in Line

A packed suitcase stood alone in the door
The empty coat rack cast its shadow ‘cross the floor
Then a hug and a kiss and a wave goodbye and no more
Another generation goes to fight its father’s wars
Loved ones reduced to a letter in the mail
Their ghost in the wind as it rocks the infant’s cradle
Who in time might become what those before were unable
Another generation sentenced to the battlefield

How many men must go and never return?
How many now have been lost to a generational curse?
Who am I to be the next one in line?
Is this the way that I’m destined to die?

Historians will find buried in tale
The thread of a wife, now a widow’s sewing needle
Making scarves for her children while she prays at the table
Where a place setting still waits undisturbed
And in a trench there’s a man with a gun at his side
With an image of a woman in his hands by dim light
And at once overcome by what’s been sacrificed
Puts his wife and his kids back in his pocket

How man men must go and never return?
How many now have been lost to a generational curse?
Who am I to be the next one in line?
Is this the way that I’m destined to die?

The family heirloom was grandfather’s gun
He was still reloading when he finally succumbed
To the wounds of a life that was lived on the run
In his mind, if nowhere else, convinced that he’d won

How many men must go and never return?
How many now have been lost to a generational curse?
Who am I to be next one in line?
Is this the way that I’m destined to die?
How many men must go and never return?
How many now have been lost to a generational curse?
Who am I but the next one in line?
This ain’t the way…

© 2022 Colin Heinrich Music