Whenever it Ends it Ends Like This

There’s a girl in the war
 they make pictures, glossy black and white
Hard times come again no more.

I gaze, tears glaze, cannot look away
It is gloss and grit, so sick of it
There’s a girl in the war

She holds her brother’s hand, her father’s rusted shawl
All that is left is rubble and dust, hunger, rage
Hard times come again no more

Our scrolls of misery, our lost letters our mothers
Voyeurs of one another’s pain, impenetrable  darkness
There’s a girl in the war

When bricks are dust, shovels are hands, whenever it ends
It ends like this: soul wound inheritance, a numbing cold, a wish
Hard times come again no more

Someone holds a camera, sends a message home, buries 
The parts of themselves required to brave disaster
There’s a girl in the war
Hard times come again no more 

Lyric Credits:  Stephen Foster
                           Josh Ritter