This song was written for Pennsic 49, which was the first Pennsic War in three years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It expressed my complex mix of feelings about the prospect of going back knowing that Covid has not been eradicated, and after a long and challenging time apart.
Homecoming
© 2022 words & music by Eric Schrager
We were called up in a crisis,
Off we went in our quest for the foe.
Who were we fighting? Did you see devices?
I’ll never claim that I know.
Soldiers at war are united,
But in this one, I’ve felt so alone.
In twos and threes as we huddle divided,
Most days are still as a stone.
Now, word’s given:
Seems our campaign is adjourned.
Tired and aching,
At last, we’re bid to return…
CHORUS
We’re worn from our cares
Now our swords are plowshares
And we’re homecoming.
With each step we call in
The names of our fallen
We’re homecoming.
We feel so displaced
But if we can’t walk home, we’ll crawl.
Will we be embraced?
Will we even be greeted at all?
Can we go home?
Could not keep track of the seasons,
They were fluid, elusive and strange.
Losing our comrades without rhyme or reason,
Did we grow numb to the change?
Fear still holds me
From clasping hands with a friend.
This soul-sickness,
How long will it take to mend? (CH)
Wondering, will they still want us?
For these years, they took more than their due.
And in our eyes, will they see things that haunt us?
Are we still who they once knew?
Oh, sweet darlings!
We know that we’re not the same.
At your hearthstones,
Do you still nurture a flame? (CH)
Over the next rise, be ready:
You’ll be gazing upon your abode.
Just take it in—it may make you unsteady,
Covered in dust from the road.
There now, see it?
After these long years apart.
Streets and valleys,
This is a map of my heart… (CH)
Can we go home?
Can we go home?
Ah, yes…we’re home.
[1] [First footnote]
[2] [Second footnote]
Drake Oranwood 