The Soldier’s Return Utah Phillips

A pretty young girl standing in the garden
Brown shoed soldier come a walking by
He stepped inside thinking just to tease her
Said I think that you will be my bride

I have a sweetheart who's in the army
Across the sea in some far Eastern land
I'd never send him a dear John letter
Just for the sake of some fast talking man

Supposing he's not lost in some battle
Or even out in the ice and snow
But in the arms of a foreign beauty
Did you ever think it might be so?

I know that he is lost in some battle
But I know not if he is alive or dead
I have his glove that I once knit for him
See how it's stained with his life's own blood

He reached his hand down inside his jacket
Lean close and see the gift I bear
That very glove that you are holding
It is the same as I have here

I know that you do not recognize me
My face is changed by some battle scars
But my heart inside it is the same love
As when I left to join the war