Iron & Wine

He kissed her once as she leaned on the windowsill
She'll never love him but knows that her father will
Her fallen fruit is all rotten in the middle but her
Breast never dries when he's hungry

The money came and she died in her rocking chair
The window wide and the rain in her braided hair
A letter locked in the pattern of her knuckle
Like a hymn to the house she was making

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted

She kissed him once cause he gave her a cigarette
And turned around but he waits like a turned down bed
And summer left like her walking with another and a
Sound of a church bell ringing

The money came and he died like a butterfly
A buried star and the haze of the city lights
A gun went off and her mother dropped her baby on the
Blue feathered wing - we were lucky

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted

Time and all you gave
I was the jerk who preferred the sea
To tussling in the waves
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Now I see love
Tracked on the floor where you walked outside
Now I seek love
Looking for you in this other girl's eyes

Time and all you took
Only my freedom to fuck the whole world
Promising not to look
Promising light on the sidewalk girls

Now I see love
There in your car where I said those things
Now I see love
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Time and all you gave
There on your cross that I never saw
Well beyond the waves
Dunking my head when I heard you call

Now I see love
There in the scab where you pinched my leg
Now I see love
There on your side of the empty bed

Take me again, she said, thinking of him
"To the pond with the swans and the swimming"
Far from his room the familiar perfume
How it felt to her when she was naked
Lessons she learned when her memory slurs
As they marvel with love at the sunset
Walking away at the dark end of day
She will measure and break like a habit
Oh how the rain sounds as light as a lover's word
And now and again she's afraid when the sun returns

"Take me again," she said, thinking of him
"I don't care for this careful behavior"
A brush through her hair, children kissing upstairs
Keeps her up with her want for her savior
The sun on the sand, on her knees and her hands
As she begs for her fish from the water
But turn them away, she's a whip and a slave
Given time she may find something better
Oh how the rain sounds as loud as a lover's words
And now and again she's afraid when the sun returns

Mother don't worry, I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed
Mother don't worry, I've got some money I saved for the weekend
Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me
Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying upwards over the mountain

Mother I made it up from the bruise on the floor of this prison
Mother I lost it all of the fear of the Lord I was given
Mother forget me now that the creek drank the cradle you sang to
Mother forgive me I sold your car for the shoes that I gave you

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons can be birds taken broken up to the mountain

Mother don't worry I've got a coat and some friends on the corner
Mother don't worry she's got a garden we're it planting together
Mother remember the night that the dog had her pups in the pantry
Blood on the floor and the fleas in their paws
And you cried 'til the morning

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying always over the mountain

Some days her shape in the doorway
Will speak to me a bird's wing on the window
Sometimes I' ll hear her when she's sleeping

Her fever dream a language on her face
I want your flowers like babies want God's love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come

Some days, like rain on the doorstep
She' ll cover me with grace in all she offers
Sometimes I'd like just to ask her

What honest words she can't afford to say, like
I want your flowers like babies want God's love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come

She says "wake up, it's no use pretending" I'll keep stealing, breathing her. Birds are leaving over autumn's ending One of us will die inside these arms Eyes wide open, naked as we came One will spread our ashes 'round the yard She says "If I leave before you, darling Don't you waste me in the ground" I lay smiling like our sleeping children One of us will die inside these arms Eyes wide open, naked as we came One will spread our ashes round the yard

Black dog bit through the keeper's chain
Small and angry when the Devil came
Sold my soul like a pocket knife
There was no moon, there'll be no milk as sweet

Tomcat curled on a rabbit cage
Brittle fingers in the potter's clay
Sold my soul and I laid her down
There was no moon, there'll be no milk as sweet

Blue bird laughs on a fallen tree
Sunset burns on a quiet sea
Sold my soul and they ran me down
There was no moon, there'll be no milk as sweet

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made And she`s chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass Springtime calls her children `till she let`s them go at last And she`s chosen where to be, though she`s lost her wedding ring Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds There are things we can`t recall, blind as night that finds us all Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls But my hands remember hers, rolling `round the shaded ferns Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I`d never learned There are names across the sea, only now I do believe Sometimes, with the windows closed, she`ll sit and think of me But she`ll mend his tattered clothes and they`ll kiss as if they know A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

Midnight, and her eyes
Hide like kittens, new and wet
Mine are sinning hands
On her lying on my bed

The river still may rise
Wild and water take us both
Mine are sinning hands
Take our bodies, take our clothes

Bloodless moonlight, may my lady
Give her lovely skin and bones

Midnight, and my bride
Treads in distant water now
Mine are sinning hands
And my teeth have fallen out

The river still may rise
Though it took more than it gave
Mine are sinning hands
On a broken windowpane

Bloodless moonlight, like my lady
Gave me only skin and bones

Be this sunset soon forgotten
Your brothers left here shaved and crazy
We've learned to hide our bottles in the well
And what's worth keeping, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

Be this sunset one for keeping
This june bug street sings low and lovely
Those band-aid children
Chased your dog away
She runs, returning, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

I'm, thinking its a sign,
That the Freckles in our eyes are mirror images,
and when we kiss their perfectly aligned.
And I, have to Speculate,
That god himself did make us into corresponding shapes like puzzle pieces from the clay
And true, It may seem like a stretch
but its thoughts like this that catch my troubled head when your,away when I am missing you to death
When your out there on the road,
for several weeks of shows and when you scan the radio, I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
come down now, they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come Down now, but well stay

I, tried my best to leave
a song on your machine, but that persistent beating sounded thin upon listening
and that frankly will not fly
you will hear the shrillest highs and lowest lows with the wind
doze down when this is guiding your mind

They will see us waving from such great heights
come down now, they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now, but well stay

She says "wake up, it's no use pretending"
I'll keep stealing, breathing her.
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes 'round the yard

She says "If I leave before you, darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard

Be this sunset soon forgotten
Your brothers left here shaved and crazy
We've learned to hide our bottles in the well
And what's worth keeping, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

Be this sunset one for keeping
This june bug street sings low and lovely
Those band-aid children
Chased your dog away
She runs, returning, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

Please remember me, happily
By the rosebush laughing
With bruises on my chin, the time when
We counted every black car passing

Your house beneath the hill and up until
Someone caught us in the kitchen
With maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank
A vision too removed to mention

But please remember me, fondly
I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then they went on to say that the Pearly Gates
Had some eloquent graffiti

Like 'We'll meet again' and 'Fuck the man'
And 'Tell my mother not to worry'
And angels with their great handshakes
But always done in such a hurry

And please remember me, at Halloween
Making fools of all the neighbors
Our faces painted white, by midnight
We'd forgotten one another

And when the morning came I was ashamed
Only now it seems so silly
That season left the world and then returned
And now you're lit up by the city

So please remember me, mistakenly
In the window of the tallest tower
Call, then pass us by but much too high
To see the empty road at happy hour

Gleam and resonate just like the gates
Around the Holy Kingdom
With words like, 'Lost and found' and 'Don't look down'
And 'Someone save temptation'

And please remember me as in the dream
We had as rug burned babies
Among the fallen trees and fast asleep
Beside the lions and the ladies

That called you what you like and even might
Give a gift for your behavior
A fleeting chance to see a trapeze
Swinger high as any savior

But please remember me, my misery
And how it lost me all I wanted
Those dogs that love the rain and chasing trains
The colored birds above there running

In circles round the well and where it spells
On the wall behind St. Peter
So bright on cinder gray in spray paint
'Who the hell can see forever?'

And please remember me, seldomly
In the car behind the carnival
My hand between your knees, you turn from me
And said the trapeze act was wonderful

But never meant to last, the clowns that passed
Saw me just come up with anger
When it filled with circus dogs, the parking lot
Had an element of danger

So please remember me, finally
And all my uphill clawing
My dear, but if I make the Pearly Gates
I'll do my best to make a drawing

Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl
An angel kissin' on a sinner
A monkey and a man, a marching band
All around the frightened trapeze swinger

Nah nah nah
Nah nah nah
Nah nah nah

To my dearest forsaken
Who the earth now has taken
Empty, the bottle drains no more

It is true that I loved you
Despite the harm that I own you
Wash out the river has you boy

Here on the eve of too long
Where you'll think I've done wrong
Waking in fear of you no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
Fielding forces of nature
Strength of the stump I tied you boy

To my dearest forsaken
Dearest vow I have broken
Afraid of your angry hands no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
River may help me later
Sleeping my lost love for you boy

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon

Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon

And she chose a yard to burn

but the ground remembers her

Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

There are things that drift away like our endless,

numbered days Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made

And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings

Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves

There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass

Springtime calls her children 'till she let's them go at last

And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring

Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds

There are things we can't recall, blind as night that finds us all

Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls

But my hands remember hers, rolling round the shaded ferns

Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned

There are names across the sea, only now I do believe

Sometimes, with the windows closed, she'll sit and think of me

But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know

A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

Mr.Henry and the muscle man
Gave her shoes on a night there was no room to stand
And like a letter in a stolen purse
She was bored of her weight, she was bored of her words
The daughter of a soldier told the fallen priest
'It's a cold, cold place in the arm's of a thief.'
And reaching out to touch the steering wheel she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, alright?

Alright?

Mr.Henry and another guy
Gave her gold on a night that it fell from the sky
And like her body when the buzzard came
She was bored of her luck, she was bored of her name
The daughter of a lawyer told the fallen priest
'It's a cold, cold place in the arm's of a thief'
And dabbing at the arrow in her heel she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here alright?'

Mr.Henry was a dying man
With advice in a tongue that she didn't understand.
And like the water when the sea got rough,
She was bored of the breeze, she was bored of her love.
The winner and the loser told the fallen priest,
'It's a cold,cold world in the arm's of a thief'
And holding everything he made her steal she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, alright?'

There's a woman here with a broken record player
And a dusty compass off to map the country's new behavior
Strange words that we hold on back into the river
Brave boys in the empty coats of men

There's a kitchen timer, distractions and reminders
That the rolly-pollies started crawling cross your family's china
Strange words that we hold on back into the river
Dead dogs only want to live again

There's a serpent charmer, pair of shoes and wander
Speeding ticket, you're not leaving that last land of slaughter
Strange words that we hold on back into the river
Good girls come and kick you in the shin

There's a hopeful hunter with a hapless sense of wonder
And a million claw marks on the rock he hid his money under
Strange words that we hold on back into the river
And made men only want to live again

She says "wake up, it's no use pretending"
I'll keep stealing, breathing her.
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes 'round the yard

She says "If I leave before you, darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard

Time and all you gave
I was the jerk who preferred the sea
To tussling in the waves
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Now I see love
Tracked on the floor where you walked outside
Now I seek love
Looking for you in this other girl's eyes

Time and all you took
Only my freedom to fuck the whole world
Promising not to look
Promising light on the sidewalk girls

Now I see love
There in your car where I said those things
Now I see love
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Time and all you gave
There on your cross that I never saw
Well beyond the waves
Dunking my head when I heard you call

Now I see love
There in the scab where you pinched my leg
Now I see love
There on your side of the empty bed

I was a quick wet boy, diving too deep for coins
All of your street light eyes wide on my plastic toys
Then when the cops closed the fair,
I cut my long baby hair
Stole me a dog-eared map
and called for you everywhere

Have I found you
Flightless bird,
jealous, weeping or lost you, American mouth
Big pill looming

Now I'm a fat house cat
Nursing my sore blunt tongue
Watching the warm poison rats curl
through the wide fence cracks
Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold
And clean blood of Christ mountain stream

Have I found you
Flightless bird, grounded,
bleeding or lost you, American mouth
Big pill stuck going down

Mr.Henry and the muscle man
Gave her shoes on a night there was no room to stand
And like a letter in a stolen purse
She was bored of her weight, she was bored of her words
The daughter of a soldier told the fallen priest
'It's a cold, cold place in the arm's of a thief.'
And reaching out to touch the steering wheel she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, alright?

Alright?

Mr.Henry and another guy
Gave her gold on a night that it fell from the sky
And like her body when the buzzard came
She was bored of her luck, she was bored of her name
The daughter of a lawyer told the fallen priest
'It's a cold, cold place in the arm's of a thief'
And dabbing at the arrow in her heel she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here alright?'

Mr.Henry was a dying man
With advice in a tongue that she didn't understand.
And like the water when the sea got rough,
She was bored of the breeze, she was bored of her love.
The winner and the loser told the fallen priest,
'It's a cold,cold world in the arm's of a thief'
And holding everything he made her steal she said
'Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, alright?'

Sunday morning my Rebekahs sleeping in with me again
There's a kid outside the church kickin' a can

When the ceder branchs twist she turns her collar to the wind
The weather can close the world within it's hands

And my mother says Rebekah is as stubborn as the come
They both call me to with words I never knew

There's a bug inside the thimble theres a band aid on her thumb
And a pony in the river turning blue

They say time may give you more then your poor bones could ever take
My Rebekah says she never wants a boy

To be barefoot on the driveway as they wave and ride away
And to run inside and curse the open door

I once gave to my Rebekah a belated promise ring
And she sold it to the waitress one a train

I may find her by the phone booth with a fashion magazine
She may kiss me when her girlfriends leave again

They say time may give you more then your poor bones could ever take
I think I could never love another girl

To be free atop a tree stump and to look the other way
While she shines my mothers imitation pearls

Sunday evening, my Rebeka's lost a book she never read
And the moon fell into the sea

So the statues of our fathers in the courthouse flowerbed
Now they bend with all the lighting tattered trees

They say time may give you more then your poor bones could ever take
My Rebekah said she knew I'd want a boy

A dollar for my boardwalk red balloon to float away
She would earn a pocketful to buy me more

Call your boys now that the table's set and shining
No one's seen any of them in many days
Call your boys, they shot a buzzard off a Chrysler
And you still taste all that you swallowed before grace

And you'll forgive even the time they burned the hen house
And ran from you ran to the hills with burning hands

Setting sun framed in the doorway right behind you
Several chores, surely some lessons left to tell
Setting sun, wolves in the hills and now before you
Sit your boys each with their shining silverware

They'll bury you under the wood beside the carport
They'll bury you some neon stop along the way

Radio fuzz on the fence post by the pasture
Long ago Liza and you would dance all day
Now you lay buried, the stern and sacred father
In sacred earth under the billboard in the rain

But one last toast, here's to the brave who went before us
Who died in vain, died in a movie for a dream

The kettle burned because I left it too long
When we were kissing with the radio on
The cat was choking on a rattlesnake bone
The town had gathered around the soldier boy
Carried home

And every summer there was imminent rain
The sick kids ate a bowl of red clay
The late judge teetered in a jon boat
The town had gathered around the soldier boy
Carried home

The broken window and the pretty blue sky
And cold water for my swollen black eye
We shook some money from your mother's old clothes
When all had gathered around the soldier boy
Carried home

Talk of yesterday and
she will show her
brothers photographed
in callous clothes.
Say tommorow and
she'll say come find me
on a beach, and there will be no moon.
But say today, and she will kiss your face
and maybe forget.

Talk of yesterday like bargain shoe strings
she will kick the car and find her friends.
Say tommorow and then
she'll describe some old communion cups
and someone's coat.
But say today and she may look your way
and lead you home.

To my dearest forsaken
Who the earth now has taken
Empty, the bottle drains no more

It is true that I loved you
Despite the harm that I own you
Wash out the river has you boy

Here on the eve of too long
Where you'll think I've done wrong
Waking in fear of you no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
Fielding forces of nature
Strength of the stump I tied you boy

To my dearest forsaken
Dearest vow I have broken
Afraid of your angry hands no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
River may help me later
Sleeping my lost love for you boy

Dreamless sleep will fall like a deep, poisoned well
On the steeple birds and this red-light hotel

So lay your pistol down, Granny
The company men never came to you
But don't unknit your brow, Granny
The mice in the yard ate the potted plants you grew

Pour your bitter tea for our sweet, liquored host
Perfect polished stones but this breeze beats you both

So lay your pistol down, Granny
The duty of men never fell to you
When you unknit your brow, Granny
Your friends, they are jewels, twice as beautiful and few

God made the automobile
To pass all the pretty girls
That smoke by the side of the road
Their blues lovin' boys in tow
To drive until the of the day
And bow to a borrowed flag
Beside all the brave and the blind
And men without men in mind

To pass all the things he made
But then never bothered to name
And no one will tell the truth
And no one will hide it from you
Like birds around the grave

God made the automobile
And i made a little boy
To pass all the blissfully young
The snake with the forked toungue
That prays on the waiting for time
And makes in the sleepless waves
The fear of the black and the jew
And blood for the camera crew
And passes the things he made
And then never bothers to name
And no one can tell the truth
And no one can hide it from you
Like birds around the grave

He kissed her once as she leaned on the windowsill
She'll never love him but knows that her father will
Her fallen fruit is all rotten in the middle but her
Breast never dries when he's hungry

The money came and she died in her rocking chair
The window wide and the rain in her braided hair
A letter locked in the pattern of her knuckle
Like a hymn to the house she was making

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted

She kissed him once cause he gave her a cigarette
And turned around but he waits like a turned down bed
And summer left like her walking with another and a
Sound of a church bell ringing

The money came and he died like a butterfly
A buried star and the haze of the city lights
A gun went off and her mother dropped her baby on the
Blue feathered wing - we were lucky

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but not hickory rooted

Homeward the new road meanders
Washed out the old road as to what did I bring
Flowers, a verse about springtime
Perchance in the treeline she's awaiting for me

Homeward these shoes worn to paper
Thin as the reason I left here so young
Homeward and what if I see her
There in the doorway I walked away from

White house asleep on the hillside
Firm as a habit I struggled to shed
Homeward with heaven above me
Old road behind me, a door up ahead

Jenny was gone
And the moon blooms
All shining
As we dragged our panic
Up and down the riverbed
Sweating wild and weird
In our Sunday clothes

Jenny was gone
Though I thought that I knew her
And the rain came howling
Out of Virginia
Blue tick blowing the water
Out her nose

Jenny and me in the front row
And singing about how heaven calls
The kingdom of the animals all
And all revealed to us one day

Jenny and me on the hilltop
And peeking at all their upturned bottles
Jumping like leopards
Jaw hearp teasing the brushfire in its rage

Jenny came back
And the wet road still shining in our eyes
An angel clear and coronal
Clothed in all that's prodigal and strange

Jenny came back
And I thought that I heard her
Murmur something about
No men in Virginia
Spat on the ground
Like a letter tossed away

Jenny and me in my dead truck
And turning over
Just where heaven calls
The kingdom of the animals
Scratching our heads
Where the wolf would go to lay

Jenny and me as the moon blooms
Were closing and both her wide-eyed brothers
Running like shepherds
Dreaming the heat of the fields
All in flames

Darling behave, though your boy is gone, or so we've heard
Ophelia would rise if it was her song and say these words
"Summer comes with its color all to take your breath away
Winter turns all the summer's love to gray"

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ah, ah, ah, ah

Darling behave, though the barnyard won't say where he's gone
Ophelia would sing if the orchard let her what went wrong
"Summer comes, yeah, as loud as hope and takes your breath away
Winter takes what the summer had to say"