Tom: Am
| Am | Am | C | C | Dm | Dm | F | G |
| Am | Am | C | C | Dm | G
[Verse 1]
Am C
In a little town where I grew up my childhood came and went
Dm F G
Was a dark-haired girl with a crooked smile with who my days were often spent
Am C
And I never gave much thanks to luck when we'd count the stars at night
Dm F G
But after 14 years a war broke out and they shipped me off to fight
Am C
I felt a taste of honour until it finally hit me why
Dm F G
I'm too poor to dodge and too young to vote but I ain't too young to die
Am C
That night I wept in darkness, alone and on my knees
Dm G Am
Clenched my hands as hard as they could squeeze
[Interlude]
|(Am) | Am | C | C | Dm | G
[Verse 2]
Am C
I'd never even kissed that girl and I'd never fired a gun
Dm F G
And I always thought you couldn't be a man until the age of twenty one
Am C
Seems the only the only thing I knew for sure is that they wouldn't take what's mine
Dm F G
So I set my sights on anything that stepped across the line
Am C
And the first time that I killed a man I felt it in my chest
Dm F G
And many nights I saw his face until it blurred in with the rest
Am C
I felt no trace of honour when it finally came with ease
Dm G Am
Instead I knelt down in the mud and begged him please
[Chorus]
G Am G F
Take me home to see my mother, take me home away from here
G Am Dm G Am
Don't let me die so young and broken and surrounded by the smell of death and fear
[Instrumental]
|(Am) | Am | C | C | Dm | Dm | F | G |
| Am | Am | C | C | Dm | Dm | F | G |
| Am | Am | C | C | Dm | G |
[Verse 3]
Am C
I lost count along the way of the ones I put in graves
Dm F G
But everyone took a little more from a heart I couldn't save
Am C
And all the things I did out there were the furthest things from law
Dm F G
So I screamed myself awake most nights so to leave the things I saw
Am C
And if I could have just one last prayer then the last thing that I'd see
Dm F G
Would be the dark-haired girl with the crooked smile as she waved goodbye to me
Am C
But I'd never had much luck with prayers, I did even worse with pleas
Dm G Am
So I'll be goddamned if I die here on my knees
[Chorus]
G Am G F
I'm going home to see my mother, I'm going home away from here
G Am Dm G Am
I ain't gonna die alone and broken, or forsaken under skies full of despair
[Outro]
| Am | Am | C | C | Dm | G |
| Am | Am | Dm | G |
| Am | Am | Am | Am Am
