Whispering

Sometimes you can hear it like a rhythm through the crickets

And the hum of the cars as they motor towards the beach

Hovering on the water like a ripple of the moon

On an eight foot tide, and the lights of the Lumina

Shine from the screen that they stuck up in the water

Children stare at movie stars who float above the sea

Tobacco barn smoke and a scary walk home

Spanish moss blowing like bodies in the trees

All the folks who loved this dirt still stay

In the breeze and in the shadows, they live here

They never go away

And my Grandma's dad is out there

Where the road turns into drawbridge

Swinging his old lantern every time that there's a storm

And that woman that he widowed

That's my Mamaw all around us

Making sure her babies are all proud, and strong, and warm

And their pictures, they're not faded

They're hung up and they're framed

Staring down at children who are proud to wear their names

And one day I will stand beside them whispering

Whispering, whispering to you my love

I grew up with the stories of the storms

Rain in the house and an angry sea

But they were country proud, country tough

And Hazel only made it halfway up the bluff

When the Depression hit they held on and fought

They worked when they could and ate what they caught

So this little piece of rundown land

Is where I sleep, and pray, and stand

All the ghosts, the marsh, the storms, and me

We sleep in the azaleas

We rise above and breathe

And my Grandma's dad is out there

Where the road turns into drawbridge

Swinging his old lantern every time that there's a storm

And that woman that he widowed

That's my Mamaw all around us

Making sure her babies are all proud, and strong, and warm

And their pictures, they're not faded

They're hung up and they're framed

Staring down at children who are proud to wear their names

And one day I will stand beside them whispering

Whispering, whispering to you my love

One day I will stand beside them whispering

Whispering, whispering to you my love

My family's whispering

Richard and Jack, Austin and Joyce

Snookie, Doris Ellen, all in one voice

Mama and Dad, Jolyon and Bud

Singing all night beside the Summer Rest mud

Colin and Rachael, Amanda and Jay

Firework nights and hide and seek days

Mamac and Mamaw cooking in the kitchen

All of us cousins crabbing and fishing