Empty Chair

(album: The Way I Wanna Go - 2021)

We commandeer a corner table
At our small town diner
Just five or six old men
Throwing out corny ol' one-liners
They pat the heads of children
Give friendly nods to strangers
They sure seem quick to laugh
Makes you think they're slow to anger

Those guys were front-line brothers
Their lives depended on each other
They were soldiers long before they were men
Yeah, the ones that somehow survived
Came home, went on to build their lives
Never charging us a penny
For the debt we owe to them
But you can almost smell the gun smoke
And the foxholes that they shared
On the days they raise their coffees
And toast the empty chair

They'll ask you where you're from
What you do, what you've done
But don't go thinking they're all talk
'Cause you wouldn't wanna piss them off

Those guys were front-line brothers
Their lives depended on each other
They were soldiers long before they were men
Yeah, the ones that somehow survived
Came home, went on to build their lives
Never charging us a penny
For the debt we owe to them
But you can almost smell the gun smoke
And the foxholes that they shared
On the days they raise their coffees
And toast the empty chair

They'll tell you anything you wanna know
But there's one place they just won't go
'Cause they don't wanna ruin our dreams
By telling us the things they've seen

Those guys were front-line brothers
Their lives depended on each other
They were soldiers long before they were men
Yeah, the ones that somehow survived
Came home, went on to build their lives
Never charging us a penny
For the debt we owe to them
And you can almost smell the gun smoke
And the foxholes that they shared
On the days they raise their coffees
And toast the empty chair

To the brother who ain't there
We salute you