Too Late To Know You

Five years apart, but a world in between You wore the scars that I hadn’t yet seen I thought you were cold, I thought you were stone But now I see—you walked through hell alone We never talked, not the way we should I thought you were distant, misunderstood But now the silence is all I hear And I’d give it all to have you here We were just starting to tear down the wall Now I’m screaming at shadows, getting no reply at all It’s too late to know you, too soon to let go You carried the weight so I wouldn’t know You stood in the fire, kept me from the flame Now I’m left with this guilt, and your name You never said much, but your silence was loud A quiet protector lost in the crowd You took the blows and never asked why Now I’m the one learning how to cry We grew up in ruins, broken and bruised Different soldiers in the same damn abuse But you were my armor, you never let it show And I was too young to ever know Now I see the man beneath the pain And all the words we’ll never say again It’s too late to know you, too soon to let go You carried the weight so I wouldn’t know You stood in the fire, kept me from the flame Now I’m left with this guilt, and your name Were you trying to save me… or just survive? I should’ve seen it, I should’ve tried… Why’d we wait so long… To start getting it right? Now you’re just a ghost In the back of my mind I never got to say I’m sorry, or goodbye Now every night’s a battle With the reasons why It’s too late to know you, too soon to let go I’m screaming your name at the undertow You bore all the pain, so I’d never feel Now I’m bleeding with nothing left to heal I’ll keep the pieces you left behind A broken bond that time couldn’t bind My brother… my stranger… Now lost to the night