The Stranger

(album: What About Me? - 1984)

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 falling 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 a 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.

Momma 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.