When the Waters Were One

Well, the evening rain washed out the riverbed
And the red clay had gone painted the river red
And I stood just as shaggy as a hickory stem
Are your eyes still as bright as I remember them?
Today the self-born are mocking both the growing and the dying
While their whims play games with this heart of mine
For we both took to flame like a sun-soaked pine
Takes to firelight high in the summertime
We graced the fiddle with a dance
And the song that we sung
Served to remind that we’re not yet unyoung
And the music rolled through us like a river runs
For a river knows that the waters are one
Around a circle of flame where the living draw near
, the dead whisper a good word in a ready ear
Of the love they’d make if only they were here
And the chance they’d take before it disappears
But seems all was found just a little too late
Now hope lies hiding all alone in wait
While the rhythm in my head pines for the way
That we danced the way we did the day…
We graced the fiddle with a dance
And the song that we sung
Served to remind that we’re not yet unyoung
And the music rolled through us like a river runs
For a river knows that the waters are one
And as I closed my eyes 'neath a waking sky
With my head on the ground
I prayed the morning light would bless what the night
Had found in between this old world and a dream
As you walked through the field in the open air
You were caught in the field of another’s stare
I was finding how hard it can be to
The pain that gains all the more you care
Now I find beauty only in death upon a stage
And the rhythmed string of lonely words hurled upon a page
While the river rolls on through every age
Just the same way, oh, that it did the day…
We graced the fiddle with a dance
And the song that we sung
Served to remind that we’re not yet unyoung
And the music rolled through us like a river runs
For a river knows that the waters are one