[Verse 1] He stood in the yard boots in the mud shirt stained dark from the rain and the blood He looked at me once like he knew my name then tied that rope like it was part of the shame I froze on the steps with my hands half-raised he said my whole life in a single glazed gaze [Pre-Chorus] He smiled like a ghost at the edge of the dawn said, “Don’t make a shrine where I’ve already gone” He said it so low I still hear it now like a match in the wind or a house let down [Chorus] Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone I made my own grave and I did it wrong Tell her I’m sorry for the mess I made Tell her I loved her in my crooked way Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone (I’m already gone) [Verse 2] The chair was still warm the rope cut clean the crows in the fence line watched everything lean I wanted to run I wanted to scream but his last words clung like a stain on me “Tell her the ash isn’t all I was tell her I was scared and I still felt love” Then he went still and the morning came and I carried that silence like a second name [Pre-Chorus] He smiled like a ghost at the edge of the dawn said, “Don’t make a shrine where I’ve already gone” He said it so low I still hear it now like a match in the wind or a house let down [Chorus] Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone I made my own grave and I did it wrong Tell her I’m sorry for the mess I made Tell her I loved her in my crooked way Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone (I’m already gone) [Bridge] Now I pass that field and I lower my eyes there’s a shape in the oak in the back of my mind I learned that day some words don’t fade they hang in the air like a debt unpaid So if you hear me when the night gets cold I’m not chasing the dead I’m trying to hold [Final Chorus] Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone I made my own grave and I did it wrong Tell her I’m sorry for the mess I made Tell her I loved her in my crooked way Don’t call me brave don’t call me gone (I’m already gone) (I’m already gone)
