Baltimore

I got the news on the satellite phone

Jason, come home, Jason, dear

I heard it on the forest floor

Six years of back country trails to the lake

Machete and snake, machete I learned

To cradle in the Old State Park

Roosevelt, ’33, he had a plan

For every young man

Give him an ax and a seed

Give him a pack and a tree

Teach him to care for himself

Give him fresh air for his health

Send money back to family

Back to Baltimore

The tallboy convenience store

The indifferent, the endless war

And I know what that is

And I know what that is

And I don’t need it anymore

But I have to go home

Luke was the son of some well-to-do folk

My family was broke, but we became friends

The parking lot, the chewed up field

I started in the park just as he was going in

A hard eight to ten for selling to kids

My momma worked the county jail

Roosevelt’s Tree Army, under the Sun

The work would be done while America

Bled by the greed of the rich

The boys planted trees and found God in the pitch

They stared at the sod in each fist—

Why am I telling you this

Is it that I'm nervous to be going back?

Back to Baltimore

The tallboy convenience store

The indifferent, the endless war

And I know what that is

And I know what that is

And I don’t need it anymore

But I have to go home

Luke, I guess, got himself into a fight

Took him to the infirmary later that night

Nothing serious, sure, but next morning he died

Then the satellite phone with the crew

Which meant I didn’t cry

I'm taking the train to take time for my thoughts

Pregnant with loss, preparing for all

The things that maybe make you feel

I’ll pay my respects and then I’ll take a walk

The neighborhood block

And then I will leave