Steven Reed is the "Lyric Only" winner with his lyrics "Innocence Gone". Steven explains how his lyrics were inspired:

"The song was written when I was in Hatay province in Turkey. I had spent time with some Syrian refugees who had crossed the border shortly after the August 2011 Syrian government attacks in the city of Hama. A girl (approximately 9 -10 years of age) named Ebru really caught my attention. She had come to Turkey with her family. I had noticed her frailty and timid behavior as she kept her head down and always hid behind her uncle. I had extensive conversations with her uncle about the Syrian events. He explained that Ebru had witnessed a lot of tragedy and it had severely affected her behavior, appetite and sleep. She use to be an outgoing life-loving child who now had first hand knowledge of death, destruction and perhaps her own mortality.

I could only think about how profoundly disturbing this must have been for her. In some ways, she had lost that childhood innocence. The song is about her experience along with her uncle's description of their section of Hama over the course of those days. A war torn place where not only protestors were targeted but also those families who lived quietly in the community."

 
line
Innocence Gone

Verse 1
Her tears still pray to Hama's nameless skies
With lurking reminders of those lives disowned
Back when the world turned blind, an oath of shame
An Alawite justice, fatal, a lie's brewing drone

Verse 2
She watched the smoke swell like insurgent's faith
Eclipsing distant gun's padder, bomb's frenzied aim
Having rivaled through the blood-brooding streets
Refuge was only a sentiment, she never was the same

Chorus
The black and blue decorate her escape
Dying comes too easy, that burden can wait
She is told to be brave, strong and move on

The terror erupts in her sleepless wake
Excavating memories, a journey she must take
She lived that day but the innocence was gone

She is told to be brave, strong and move on
She lived that day but the innocence was gone

Verse 3
Only rumors now walk, where once rebel ghosts
Spurious enemies adorned for their useless flail
With Ramadan's eve she fell under tyranny's swarm
While the purge for justice is the war they unveil

Verse 4
By saboteurs hands, the dissidence was severed
That "Day of Rage" lay mute, discourse estranged
Once city, now grave, stenched with shabiha honor,
In a moment, too soon, she knew she had changed

Chorus
The black and blue decorate her escape
Dying comes too easy, that burden can wait
She is told to be brave, strong and move on

The terror erupts in her sleepless wake
Excavating memories, a journey she must take
She lived that day but the innocence was gone

She is told to be brave, strong and move on
She lived that day but the innocence was gone

Repeat Chorus
The black and blue decorate her escape
Dying comes too easy, that burden can wait
She is told to be brave, strong and move on

The terror erupts in her sleepless wake
Excavating memories, a journey she must take
She lived that day but the innocence was gone

She is told to be brave, strong and move on
She lived that day but the innocence was gone