26. Acoustic Scars
Acoustic Scars is a eulogy for his older cousin — one of the wandering
three — who broke down weeping in his wife's arms in New York, who
played acoustic blues with him and wanted to write a song about what
they survived, but was taken by the darkness before he could. This
is that song, written for all three of them.
By Thomas J. Allen, © 2026
Spoken Word
While my life was finally moving out of the darkness, I heard from my older cousin.
I picked you up from New Jersey and brought you to New York,
hoping you could find the same healing I did.
But sitting there with my wife, you broke down.
You cried in her arms, revealing the things they did to you...
things worse than I ever endured.
We used to play acoustic guitars and write blues together.
I tried to show you that real love and a real family were possible.
But the trauma kept coming back. The darkness took over. The drugs took hold.
I wept the day I had to tell you to leave.
That was the last time I saw you alive.
You once told me you wanted to write a song about what we went through.
Because you cannot share your pain, I will do it for you.
This album is for all three of us: you, me, and your younger brother.
The wandering three.
Verse 1
You sat with my wife and you let it all out,
The horrors, the demons, the shadows, the doubt.
You wept in her arms for the innocence lost,
For the evil we suffered and the heavy toll it cost.
We strummed on acoustics, we played through the blues,
I gave you a home, I had nothing to lose.
I tried to show you a life that was real,
But the wounds in your mind were too broken to heal.
Pre-Chorus
The darkness returned and it clouded your mind,
You couldn't leave all the trauma behind.
I wept at the door when I told you to go,
The heaviest sorrow my spirit would know.
Chorus
I hate this world caught between the dark and the light,
Where it's so easy to fall in the dead of the night.
You wanted to write of the hell we went through,
So I'm lifting my voice and I'm singing for you.
For the pain we survived, for the scars we can't hide,
This song is a ghost for the wandering three.
Verse 2
A musician's heart and a rhythm so deep,
But you had so many secrets you needed to keep.
I watched as you struggled to find a new way,
But the weight of the past wouldn't let you stay.
The poison was calling, it silenced your song,
In a world where you never felt like you belonged.
Pre-Chorus
The darkness returned and it clouded your mind,
You couldn't leave all the demons behind.
I weep for the brother I couldn't save,
Now I'm carrying your song to the grave.
Chorus
I hate this world caught between the dark and the light,
Where it's so easy to fall in the dead of the night.
You wanted to write of the hell we went through,
So I'm lifting my voice and I'm singing for you.
For the pain we survived, for the scars we can't hide,
This song is a ghost for the wandering three.
Bridge
Thank you my cousin for stealing the bread,
For taking the risk so that we could be fed.
We played those acoustics and wrote of the pain,
While your younger brother watched through the rain.
You carried the secrets, you carried the rage,
Now I'm left to stand on the center of the stage.
Outro Spoken Word
The world is a darker place without you.
I miss you.
But the monsters who did this... the predators who broke us...
They are gone.
They can never hurt another child again.
Your song is written.
Rest now.