My first memory’s daws hill
I was three but I can still
See it clearly
You looked so tall that I was sure
Looking up from the tee-pee floor
If I shout he won’t hear me
That’s when you first came along
Ma and you were both dead wrong
But who’s to stop her
And I didn’t want to talk
I was little and my thoughts
Open as my eyes were
When your little you just watch
You don’t care who’s up on top
Or who’s to suffer
And ma was young that’s all I know
She never tells me how it goes
And I don’t ask her
Out in Dryden at the end of the road
Past burning tires and broke down homes
Back in the woods
Dirt packed down by our matchbox cars
The circle of pines playing under the stars
And sleeping good
The houseboat walls made of particle board
Four bunk beds and the rest on the floor
Take turns who chooses
Brody got born and we watched from the door
Don’t think they ever heard anything like it before
But I saw Juge’s
Ma chased the man with a frying pan
He came with a clipboard and a government van
It wasn’t funny
Playing at the creek in the mud and the weeds
Bro’s long hair almost down to his knees
Like golden honey
Chorus:
You make it known
That this world is not your home
With your red eyes all the time
And your strong but weakened mind
Too weak to smile
Speaking openly of danger to a child
The mink sheds empty but for seven and a bed
Rotten post walls and the tin overhead
To keep out the rain
You shooting rats in the middle of the night
Feel them on the covers and we’d quick shine the light
For you to take aim
Potato chips a treat and naked all the time
Everybody thinking they must be out of their minds
Or barely healthy
But life is so good when there’s family around
Too young to care about people looking down
And everything rosy
Out in the world in the ‘59 ford
Beer in your hand smokes on the dashboard
Us out the window
Dirty faced kids and the wide open sky
Warm night air and you watch it fly by
And feel so mellow
Tam making things down by the apple tree
Standing in the creek pants rolled to her knees
Hair hanging down
Juge and Cory with the pups in the barn
All warm and fuzzy and they just got born
Crawling around
Molotov cocktails jumping bikes in the road
Gravel in our cuts and the dirt in our clothes
Fun all around
All the windows open on a sweet cool night
Thunder and lightning so we cut out the lights
To watch it come down
Tall grass grows in the bat house yard
Along the old road to the creek and the barn
And the way back hill
Ma took our pictures on the Cadillac hood
Leaning on the roof it almost looks like you could
Be standing there still
Repeat chorus
Ma cooking pancakes in the bus on the stove
We ran around and the wood smoke rose
Businessmen watching
Them off to work brief cases in their hands
Turning scared faces on our long haired clan
By the capital building
The bus in the hollow and up on Joe’s hill
Sledding in the winter and the garden to till
In the long days of summer
The last good days before you went to jail
Visiting room pictures of you looking frail
Ma begins to wonder
And when you got out it just wasn’t the same
At least that’s what they call it when they give it a name
For something missing
We talk about you now but it’s so hard still
Hard to find the time or the heart or the will
For reminiscing
Repeat chorus
