Collateral Damage is a plaintive, pathos-filled ballad about living with someone with PTSD, who has been changed by war, and is no longer the person you remember. Yet, he is still 'family' and while you try to make the best of it, the toll it takes on your psyche, pride and quality of life is deafening.
It is written from personal experience and meant to shed light on the question "Why doesn't she just leave?" which is never easy to answer.
Collateral Damage
Tapia Corel -2009
People often wonder, why I put up with your flak
Your drinkin’and your meanness, when you fall into vat
Of misery and loneliness, a cast-off from the war
I recall another time when life held so much more
And you used to be good, used to be so kind
When others were in need of help, you weren’t hard to find
And you could hold your shoulders wide. Face into the wind|
But most of all: You used to be my friend
When we first walked together, and charted our new path
We took a vow for better, and laughter that would last
And with each child we cherished, and welcomed to our world
Your manly pride beamed from inside, for our boy and girl
When you used to be good, used to be so kind
When others were in need of help, you weren’t hard to find
And you could give your family dreams, that seemed to have no end
But most of all: You used to be our friend
Tonight you’re lost in dreams of what might have been
If you woulda, coulda, shoulda, found the time
To face your demons squarely, instead of hiding in|
Four quarts of beer, and countless shots of Early Times
And late at night I wonder, how I got into this mess
A quagmire of a marriage, filled with loneliness
My friends all see a siphon, who’s bound to bleed me dry
Who sucks me dry of joy and pride, pretending that he tries,
But he used to be good, used to be so kind
When others were in need of help, He wasn’t hard to find
And he could give his family dreams, that seemed to have no end
But most of all,
He used to be our friend
Yeah, most of all,
He used to be our friend
