The Stranger

Stranger, I know where you'll find her Down the road from here, about a mile and a quarter You'll know the place by a shackey barn That stands in the field by a run-down farm By a pond, filled up with stagnant water Then you'll see a shack nearby, you'll ask yourself I wonder why it looks so cold, and lifeless all around Chimney rocks are fallin' out, it looks as though The fire's gone out and the biggest part Of the house is rotted down Though stranger, I ain't seen her lately She don't come around here like she used to You've got her pictured in your mind Pretty, gentle, sweet, and kind You've practiced every word you're gonna say You'll call her name, but she won't hear you She's in the graveyard near you She died ten years ago, last May There was a man she talked about A man she had to live without Years ago, he just turned and left one day He left her with an unborn child And her love for him that never died And an aching heart that sent her to an early grave Yes, stranger, I know who you are I recognized you from afar But you ain't never seen me, not one time Yes, I know that you're my dad From pictures that my momma had And it was me and momma that you left behind Stranger, you will find her there In a peaceful sleep on yonder hill Where we once walked, as I do still To pick her flowers from the field Mama don't need you anymore And I don't need you like before You can go on back to where you went before You're just a stranger