Casualties of Love or War

Verse 1

Grandma kept her radio on the sill

Static crackling every night at three

She'd sew the same blue scarf into the gray

And whisper names the wind would never keep

I asked her once who lived inside that thread

She turned the dial and let the valley breathe

Pre-Chorus

Oh the hills don't answer

Oh the river just runs on

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Verse 2

Uncle saved a picture in his boot

A boy beside a bridge before it fell

He'd say the water carried all our words

And left the frozen silence to the bell

Each Sunday he would walk the empty road

And lay a white flower where the pasture stays

Pre-Chorus

Oh the hours don't answer

Oh the town just drifts along

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Bridge

Mm the decades pass

Mm the orchard grows

Mm the children ask

Mm what nobody knows

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Outro

Casualties of war

Oh oh

Sing them home again

Oh oh

Talking Blues

Now let me tell you 'bout a Sunday in April

When the fog rolled in like a church curtain

My cousin found a letter in the attic

Written in a hand that was broken but certain

It said don't cry for me when the soldiers come

Just plant the rose and let the children run

Verse 3

Grandma's radio now sits in my room

The dial still points to the same station

I traced her stitches till my fingers knew

The map of every lost relation

The blue scarf hangs where the window meets the wall

And it hums a tune that never fades at all

Pre-Chorus

Oh the years don't answer

Oh the echo carries on

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Talking Blues

Now I drove through Mostar in the summer heat

The bridge was new but the river was old

A man was selling apples by the street

He said the sweet ones come from trees grown bold

He pointed to a hill where the crosses stand

Said that's where they buried the

Verse 6

I walked the stone road up to Srebrenica

Where the potash trees still hold their ground

A bus driver told me his mother's sister

Was the last one who heard the morning sound

He said the dust has settled on the shoes she left

But the porch light still burns for her return

Pre-Chorus

Oh the valley don't answer

Oh the creek just keeps its song

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Talking Blues

Now my daughter wears that scarf to school

Teacher asks, she says it's just tradition

But I caught her at recess counting stones

Like she was learning how to add division

She asked me granddad why's a jar so heavy

I said it's not the clay, it's all the memory

Verse 7

At night I dream the river turns to glass

And every name floats up like summer moths

I reach my hand in, catch a boy at mass

He's wearing shoes that walked the mountain paths

I wake up with the water in my chest

And I sew another stitch into the rest

Pre-Chorus

Oh the fields don't answer

Oh the rooster crows at dawn

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Talking Blues

Well I went to Sarajevo in the winter cold

Snow was falling on the rose-shaped scars

A man was playing accordion by the old hotel

Singing songs that didn't make the papers

He said the music never left the city

It just waits for somebody willing

Bridge

Mm the scarf is blue

Mm the thread is strong

Mm the jar is full

Mm the song goes on

Mm the water turns

Mm the valley green

Mm they're never gone

Mm just in between

Verse 8

My daughter's daughter now sings at the window

The same three notes Grandma used to hum

That radio's long gone but the static lingers

In the way we say goodbye to someone

I taught her how to pour a little water

And let the names go tumbling to the stream

Pre-Chorus

Oh the wind don't answer

Oh the mountains hold their breath

Talking Blues

Cousin Ilija still runs the old bakery in town

He keeps a photograph behind the register

He says every loaf tells you who’s been found

And every empty pan is just a whisper

On Fridays he carves a heart into the crust

Says it’s his way of speaking when the world’s unjust

Verse 9

Last summer I planted wild roses by the gate

Watched them bloom through the cracks in the stone

Aunt Mira laughed, said the roots will wait

For the rain to call each blossom home

Now their petals line the river’s bend in May

And I trace each one when the sky turns gray

Pre-Chorus

Oh the bells don’t answer

Oh the dawn just rolls along

Chorus

Casualties of war

Carried in a red clay jar

Every stone a name

Every name a door

We count them in the rain

And we sing them home again

Casualties of love

That cannot be restored

Talking Blues

Last night I saw the same blue scarf on a stranger

He was walking slow by the station lane

He nodded once, eyes kind and full of danger

Like he remembered every surname and every pain

You know the stories cling to every coat and shoe

Tangled up in the city’s quiet avenue

Verse 10

I keep the letter folded under my pillow’s seam

Read the shaky lines whenever storms begin

In the lamp-lit dark I chase down a dream

Where none of our names are blown by the wind

Morning comes, and the roses lean their heads

Whispering softly to the ones we’ve shed

Outro

Carried in the rain

Oh oh

We sing them home

Oh oh

Red clay jar

Oh oh

We sing them home

Oh oh

Casualties of war

Oh oh

We sing them home

Oh oh