When they ask me whether you mean more to me

Than moving pictures on a T.V. screen

Am I supposed to say

That I was young when you left and you don't keep in touch these days

Or that the bottle had its say and took you away?

I wonder if you know your family misses you so

The hardest lessons learned

No matter where you go, no matter where you go

Are the ones you learn alone

And last time I saw you

There was a stranger in the skin of someone I once knew

Someone that I thought was stronger than addiction and decay

You are the one who got away

And now we're forced to stand by helpless

And watch you sinking like your coast in the pacific waves

And I would call even though you won't pick up

To hear your voice like a ghost on the machine

"This is the home of someone you do not know

A past life you never wanted to leave."

Though the paths we choose are wrought with pain

And wind and bend, unpaved, can lead us all astray

No matter how we change

Connections sealed at birth with blood remain

I wonder if you know your family misses you so

The hardest lessons learned

No matter where you go, no matter where you go

Are the ones you learn alone

I wonder if you know

It's like the time that I burnt my hands on Pop's lit cigarette

You held me in your arms and said that the pain was something I'd forget

Now that you're running away from the bed you made yourself I wonder

If there is something I could say to take your pain away

And I wonder if you know your family misses you so

The hardest lessons learned

No matter where you go, no matter where you go

Are the ones you learn alone