The Silver Birch

I got a call from your mother

so it must have been a dream

She said, I vanished for half of his life,

Now, l'm returning to be seen"

And then it began to rain and it rained for over a week

and I heard the dogs grind their teeth just like me

We pitched our tents in the pasture

The kids caught lightning bugs in a honey jar

We sang 'Waiting for a Train' with your sisters

but you were already in that car

And then it began to rain

and it rained for over a month

and the sunflowers they got drunk just like me

Now, Sara looks for a wolf on the levee

She saw him cutting through the grass and mist

While I watch the ceiling lamp flicker above me

and wait for the kettle on the stove to hiss

And then it began to rain

and it rained for over a year

and the silver birch turned grey and bitter just like me

Well, l've been dying to forget that day

l've been trying to hold my tongue

Who really wants to hear the victim say

"I was wrong, but I was wronged"

And then it began to rain

when you closed your blue eyes

Did it take you by surprise when it began to rain

and you unlaced the sky

until every cloud was empty inside just like me?