| 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