I wrote this song about probably the saddest photo I’ve ever seen:

From Wikipedia:

The Boy Standing by the Crematory (alternatively The Standing Boy of Nagasaki) is a historic photograph taken in Nagasaki, Japan, in October of 1945, shortly after the atomic bombing of that city on August 9, 1945. The photograph is of a boy of about 10 with his dead baby brother strapped to his back, waiting for his turn at the crematorium.

The photograph was taken by Joe O’Donnell, then working for the United States Marine Corps.^[2]

Album: [Box of One Year of Winter]

Lyrics:

(Verse 1)
Barefoot on the ashen ground,
Ten years old, but no tears found.
The weight he bore upon his back,
A silent love in a world gone black.

No child’s game, no playful air,
Just the solemn grip of despair.
His brother’s head, in quiet rest,
Held close against his broken chest.

(Pre-Chorus)
Men in white masks spoke no sound,
Only the fire’s whispering mound.
He stood like stone, the flames would rise,
But his pain was written in his eyes.

(Chorus)
Biting his lip ’til it bled like the sun,
Saying goodbye before he’d begun.
A boy with a burden too heavy to bear,
Yet he stood there, silent, in a soldier’s stare.
The fire burned low, the world turned gray,
The boy turned and walked away.

(Verse 2)
A baby’s life, now ash and smoke,
A shattered bond, a fragile yoke.
No words were said, no prayers were sung,
Just the grief of youth, forever stung.

The sky hung heavy, the air so still,
A child left to face the chill.
What dreams had died, what hope remained?
A boy, a brother, forever stained.

(Pre-Chorus)
No comfort came, no arms to hold,
Just the silence of a heart gone cold.
He burned his grief in the flame’s embrace,
But he carried the loss etched on his face.

(Chorus)
Biting his lip ’til it bled like the sun,
Saying goodbye before he’d begun.
A boy with a burden too heavy to bear,
Yet he stood there, silent, in a soldier’s stare.
The fire burned low, the world turned gray,
The boy turned and walked away.

(Bridge)
What words could heal, what time erase?
The shadow cast on the human race.
The boy who bore a love so deep,
Who could only stand, who could not weep.

(Chorus)
Biting his lip ’til it bled like the sun,
Saying goodbye before he’d begun.
A boy with a burden too heavy to bear,
Yet he stood there, silent, in a soldier’s stare.
The fire burned low, the world turned gray,
The boy turned and walked away.

(Outro)
No child should stand where he once stood,
Amid the ashes, bone, and wood.
But through his pain, the world can see,
The cost of war, humanity.

A boy with a burden too heavy to bear,
Yet he stood there, silent, in a soldier’s stare.
The fire burned low, the world turned gray,
The boy turned and walked away.

(Outro)
No child should stand where he once stood,
Amid the ashes, bone, and wood.
But through his pain, the world can see,
The cost of war IS humanity.