Children's Work

My father was a paper plane

My mother was a windswept tree

My little brother's nearly twice my age

He taught me how to meditate

I taught him how to read

I grew up with a book in my bed

I got these dark circles before I turned ten

Heard my mother with her friends worry

It was something she did to get such a serious kid

Now I've learned how to paint my face

How to earn my keep how to clean my kill

Some nights I still can't sleep

The past rolls back and I can see us still

You've learned how to hold your own

How to stack your stones but the history's thick

Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think

Before you came along I was a lone cub

Fell in love with language tried to tell the grown-ups

About the storm clouds the weather in my head

Hadn't learned the word for melancholy yet

Then you came in five years behind

We thought you couldn't talk

Turns out you were just shy

Mom said it was serious / dad said you'd be fine

I thought you were the prophet of 1989

You were so tender

We thought something was wrong with you

So patient we thought that you were deaf

You were so solemn so tiny but so ancient

Ma took you to see doctors it scared he half to death

And I made you a library of tiny books

With spines two inches high

You didn't say too much, but smiled

Taught me how to quiet down my mind

Now I've learned how to paint my face

How to earn my keep how to clean my kill

Some nights I still can't sleep

The past rolls back and I can see us still

You've learned how to hold your own

How to stack your stones but the history's thick

Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think

You slept in my bed and if I kept quiet

I could hear all the voices in your head

When the wagon tipped I prayed over your body

I asked God to take the damage out on me

Ten years later he finally gets the memo

Sent it to accounting and knocked out my front teeth

But you came to

And took my hand and held my eyes and

Me and you had a long walk home

So we decided not to cry

Now we've got a grown up love

And I know that's how it's suppose to be

Same old story mom gets Easters

Lets dad have Christmas Eve

But I won't pretend I don't remember how unsual we were

The little mystic and his handler

All some children do is work

I've learned how to paint my face

How to earn my keep how to clean my kill

But some nights I still can't sleep

The past rolls back and I can see us still