Sadie

(album: The Milk-Eyed Mender - 2004)

Sadie, white coat
You carry me home
And bury this bone
And take this pine cone

Bury this bone
To gnaw on it later, gnawing on the telephone
Until then, we pray and suspend
The notion that these lives do never end

And all day long we talk about mercy
Lead me to water, Lord, I sure am thirsty
Down in the ditch where I nearly served you
Up in the clouds where he almost heard you

And all that we built and all that we breathed
And all that we spilt or pulled up like weeds
Is piled up in back and it burns irrevocably
And we spoke up in turns till the silence crept over me

And bless you and I deeply do
No longer resolute, oh and I call to you
But the water got so cold
And you do lose what you don't hold

This is an old song, these are old blues
And this is not my tune
But it's mine to use
And the seabirds where the fear once grew
Will flock with a fury and they will bury what'd come for you

And down where I darn with the milk-eyed mender
You and I and a love so tender
Stretched on a hoop where I stitch this adage
Bless our house and its heart so savage

And all that I want and all that I need
And all that I've got is scattered like seed
And all that I knew is moving away from me
And all that I know is blowing like tumbleweed

And the mealy worms in the brine will burn
In a salty pyre among the fauns and ferns
And the love we hold and the love we spurn
Will never grow cold, only taciturn

And I'll tell you tomorrow
Oh Sadie, go on home now
And bless those who've sickened below
And bless us who have chosen so

And all that I've got and all that I need
I tie in a knot and I lay at your feet
And I have not forgot but a silence crept over me
So dig up your bone, exhume your pinecone, Sadie