Soldier's Daughter

You hardly knew me, but I am your father
I got to know you while you were a toddler
Climbing on my knee
You taught me how love could be so free

You are my daughter and I was a soldier
I told you and your brother who was older
That I’d be home again
But I never made it in

I was a casualty of an invisibly raging war
Cold War missions overseas
Six months out I longed to be
With your mother and you so
But my plane went down before
I could return to you

I still saw you from another place
I remember your beautiful face
Turning into stone
My baby girl all alone

I wanted to hold you, I wanted to cry
The thousands of tears that were locked behind your eyes
But I could not get through
Oh my child, I love you

You were a refugee of an invisibly raging war
No arms to break your fall
No man standing tall
No daddy’s name to call
Just the photo on the wall

I saw you withdraw from your friends at play
When the conversations turned to Fathers Day
I would whisper in your ear
I’m with you, please, please hear

I saw you in Washington protesting the war
As your heart was breaking for the man you adored
There was nothing I could do
As I watched history repeating in you

We were casualties of an invisibly raging war
It was the war nobody saw
But a war just like them all
Leaving names engraved in stone
Sons and daughters all alone