Come Back Soon

I remember the day of the tennessee flood

The sound of the scream and the sight of the blood

My son he saw as the animal died

In the jaws of the dog as the river ran by

I said, "come back soon."

It's there on the page of the book that I read

The boy grew up and the yearling was dead

He stood at the gate with the angel on guard

And wept for the death of his little boy heart

I say, "come back soon."

We wake in the night in the womb of the world

We beat our fists on the door

We cannot breathe in this sea that swirls

So we groan in this great darkness

For deliverance

Deliverance, o lord

I sit on the bench at the bend in the trail

And I can feel in the fall the final exhale

The trees of the field all wring their hands

And the leaves go by like a funeral band

I say, "come back soon."

We wake in the night in the womb of the world

We beat our fists on the door

We cannot breathe in this sea that swirls

So we groan in this great darkness

Are we alone in this great darkness?

If nature's red in tooth and in claw

Then it seems to me that she's an outlaw

'Cause every death is a question mark

At the end of the book of a beating heart

And the answer is scrawled in the silent dark

On the dome of the sky in a billion stars

But we cannot read these angel tongues

And we cannot stare at the burning sun

And we cannot sing with these broken lungs

So we kick in the womb and we beg to be born

Deliverance!

Deliverance, o lord!