Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills and the sea-swaled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
all a-chew on your bones so dry
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
When I was a girl, how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There, at the fair, where our eyes caught careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas,
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
Stems and stones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
This skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you
Oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills and the sea-swaled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
all a-chew on your bones so dry
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
When I was a girl, how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There, at the fair, where our eyes caught careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas,
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
Stems and stones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
This skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you
Oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind
song info: