Washed Away

It came down quiet in the dead of night

No warning loud enough, no time to fight

A father's arms wrapped 'round his little boy

Tried to shield him from the flood, from the noise

A mother crying out her baby's name

While the water took it all away

Now there's silence where laughter used to live

Bedrooms full of echoes and what-ifs

Sisters gone, still holding hands

Brothers lost in a flood they couldn't understand

You can't put words to pain this deep

When the ones you love, you don't get to keep

No storm should steal a life that way

But heaven gained too many souls that day

And we're left behind -

Picking up the pieces they washed away

There's a tricycle caught in a chain link fence

Shoes on a porch that still make no sense

Photos floating down a broken street

Of families torn apart by rising grief

Names we'll speak for years to come

Of heroes who ran in when the flood had won

Now there's silence where laughter used to live

Bedrooms full of echoes and what-ifs

Sisters gone, still holding hands

Brothers lost in a flood they couldn't understand

You can't put words to pain this deep

When the ones you love, you don't get to keep

No storm should steal a life that way

But heaven gained too many souls that day

And we're left behind -

Picking up the pieces they washed away

And don't you dare say this was earned

Don't politicize what the heavens burned

There were children here, hearts and names

Not just towns caught in the rain

Now there's silence where laughter used to live

Toys untouched, pictures we can't relive

Sons and daughters, fathers too

Gone too soon, with skies still blue

And we don't know how to carry this pain

Only that we'll never be the same

No, we'll never be the same

Since the night they were washed away