Whiskey Prayer

(Inspired by the vibe of “Whiskey Lullaby”)Topic: Drinking through grief after losing a fellow soldierTone: Haunting, raw, cinematic
Verse 1
There’s an empty chair at the end of the barWhere you used to show up with that crooked grin.Now it’s just me, this bottle, and the neon humTrying to stitch together what’s left within.Your dog tags hang from my mirror still,Clinking like a ghost every time I turn home.Folks say time heals the wounds you bear,But some cuts settle deep in the bone.I replay that night in the desert heat—The blast, the dust, the radio screams.I carry your voice in my chest like a weight,Like a prayer I whisper only in dreams.
Verse 2
Your mama called last night, her voice small,Asking if you were brave in your final breath.I said you smiled, said you cracked a joke—The truth is you cried and I held your chest.I’ve lied a thousand lies like thatTo keep the world from knowing the cost.Heroes ain’t born — they’re carved from pain,And they leave a trail of those they’ve lost.Tonight the whiskey’s running slow,Burning down the things I can’t say.You should be here giving me hell…Not fading like smoke at the end of the day.
Pre-Chorus
War took you fast, but grief takes slow—And I’m learning there’s no easy letting go.
Chorus
So here’s my whiskey midnight prayer,To the brother I lost out there.To the sand, the sky, the fight we shared,To the moments that haunt me everywhere.If heaven’s quiet, save me a chair—’Cause someday, brother… I’ll meet you there.
Bridge
Till then I’ll raise this glass to your name,Trying to live in a world you never came home to claim.

* Influence: Dark Americana, no melodic overlap