Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet A sweetheart left behind Far from the hills of the sea-swelled 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 voles and the weevils All a'chew upon 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 when 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 Stems and bones and stone walls too Could keep me from you Skein of skin is all too few To keep me from you But 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