I won't be home for Christmas
Outside the window in my memory, snow is coming down
I can smell the cedar and the cider all over town
Reality comes back and shakes me from my bed
The sound of rattling cages takes me out of my head
I won't be home for Christmas this year
Just like the one before and the one before I'm here
In this cold steel and concrete, I'll be spending Christmas day
With a block full of company and this debt I have to pay
Every year at this time, I think about what's fair
And why I didn't play that way, and why I didn't care
I'd give what's left of this stale life for one last breath to share
One moment with you frozen in the chill of Christmas air
I won't be home for Christmas this year
Just like the one before and the one before I'm here
In this cold steel and concrete, I'll be spending Christmas day
With a block full of company and this debt I have to pay
I won't be home for Christmas this year
Just like the ones before and ones to come, I fear
This icy prison yard is my winter wonderland
My innocence left footprints in the west Texas sand
