Way Back Home

(Inspired by “Way Back”)Topic: A veteran searching for the younger version of himselfTone: Reflective, emotional, bittersweet
Verse 1
I left a version of me in a small-town fieldKicking dust with my buddies, dreaming big, feeling healed.Didn’t know he’d get lost in the heat of war,Didn’t know he’d stay behind on a far-off shore.Sometimes I think about that younger kid—What he knew, what he felt, what he dared, what he did.Before the world carved scars down to bone,Before the quiet nights cut like stone.
Verse 2
Now every mile feels like a memory chase,Trying to find myself in a stranger’s face.Stopped at the diner where mom used to work,Sat in that old booth like it still held my worth.People smiled—said I looked grown—No one asked what the war had sewn.But I felt that younger me in the room,Like he whispered, “You’ll find your way back soon.”
Pre-Chorus
The road home ain’t on any map—It’s a journey inside, getting pieces back.
Chorus
I’m on my way back—Way back home to me.Past the shadows, past the noise, past the lost memories.If it takes my whole damn life just to feel free—I’ll search every road, every shore, every breeze.Till I find my way back home to me.
Bridge
Healing’s slow, but I ain’t gone—Pieces lost can still live on.

* Influence: Highway country-folk, original