The Door Was Nailed and Closed

Instrumental Intro

Verse 1

Twenty winters I carried the banner

Cold iron bit my shoulder raw

I buried brothers in borrowed soil

and I swore I would come home

Pre-Chorus

The road bent low beneath my boots

The river ran the wrong way home

My name felt strange inside my mouth

Like a stranger's borrowed coat

Chorus

I came back

I came home

I came crawling through the smoke

I came back

I came home

and the door was nailed and closed

Verse 2

A woman on the porch I knew

She wore my mother's ring

She called a child in from the yard

and the child did not know me

Pre-Chorus

The hounds remembered what I was

The fence remembered where I stood

The apple tree had split in two

and no one planted new

Chorus

I came back

I came home

I came crawling through the smoke

I came back

I came home

and the door was nailed and closed

Bridge

Take the medal

Take the name

Take the years I cannot claim

Burn the letters

Break the stone

Let the quiet take me whole

Guitar Solo

Chorus

I came back

I came home

I came crawling through the smoke

I came back

I came home

and the door was nailed and closed

Outro

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Twenty winters

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