Lyrics

[THE BATTLE NOBODY SEES]

[INSTRUMENTAL INTRO — PIANO, LOW CELLO, RESTRAINED SNARE, DARK WARM STRINGS]

[VERSE 1 — QUIET, CLOSE VOCAL]

I’m a veteran sitting at the table,
Coffee cooling in my hand.
You ask me where my mind just went.
Sometimes I don’t understand.

I learned to scan a crowded room,
Know the exits, watch the door.
Sometimes I still choose the chair
With my back against the wall.

The uniform’s been put away.
The mission ended years ago.
But PTSD can stand its watch
Long after soldiers come back home.

[PRE-CHORUS]

People ask me, “How you doing?”
Most days I can say, “Okay.”
But depression has a way of showing up
When I thought I’d put it away.

[CHORUS]

It’s the battle nobody sees,
PTSD still standing watch on me.
No rifle in my hands tonight,
No enemy that you can see.

I can laugh and I can love you.
I can have a damn good day.
Then a sound, a word, a memory
Can take me fifty years away.

So if I suddenly go quiet,
Please don’t think that means I’m gone.
Sometimes this old veteran
Is fighting something long since gone.

It’s the battle nobody sees.

[VERSE 2]

Some nights I sleep till morning.
Some nights the nightmares win.
I wake up soaked and breathing hard,
Trying to find out where I’ve been.

There’s no “stand down” for a memory.
No order makes it disappear.
A trigger doesn’t ask permission.
Suddenly yesterday is here.

And depression isn’t weakness.
It doesn’t mean I lost the fight.
Sometimes my mind just carries
More weight than I can ruck tonight.

I wish that I could always tell you
What’s happening inside my head.
But sometimes all I know to tell you is,
“I’m tired. I need my bed.”

[PRE-CHORUS]

That can be hard on those who love us
When they don’t know what they’ve done.

Sometimes nobody did anything.

Sometimes the battle simply comes.

[CHORUS — STRONGER]

It’s the battle nobody sees,
PTSD still standing watch on me.
No rifle in my hands tonight,
No enemy that you can see.

I can laugh and I can love you.
I can have a damn good day.
Then a sound, a word, a memory
Can take me fifty years away.

So if I suddenly go quiet,
Just give me time to find my way.
I’m not leaving you behind me.

I’m trying to get back to today.

[BRIDGE — STRINGS RISE]

To the husbands, wives and families
Who’ve watched a veteran shut down,
Sometimes you didn’t cause the storm.

You were just there when it came around.

And to my fellow veterans
Who know exactly what I mean,
Who still carry things inside them
That nobody else has seen—

You completed every mission.

You carried every ruck.

You looked out for your battle buddy.

But some wounds came home with us.

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Every war and every year—
Different places, different uniforms,
But some of us brought the battlefield here.

[BUILD — STRONG MALE VOCAL]

We came home.

We took off the uniform.

We built lives.

Raised families.

Got older.

But sometimes part of us
Is still standing watch.

[KEY CHANGE — FINAL CHORUS]

IT’S THE BATTLE NOBODY SEES,
AND I KNOW I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE.
THERE ARE VETERANS ALL AROUND ME
STILL FIGHTING WARS THEY THOUGHT WERE DONE.

Yes, PTSD can shake me.
Depression sometimes has its day.
But neither one gets my whole story.

Neither one gets the final say.

I’m a veteran.

I’m still standing.

I’ve survived more than you can see.

And when that darkness comes around again,
There are people standing watch with me.

It’s the battle nobody sees…

But that battle isn’t all of me.

[FINAL — QUIET, ALMOST A WHISPER]

I served.

I came home.

I’m still here.

And tomorrow…

I’ll keep living.

[LONG INSTRUMENTAL OUTRO — PIANO, CELLO, STRINGS, CLEAN ELECTRIC GUITAR — ABSOLUTELY NO MORE VOCALS]