Butchered Tongue

[00:13.55] As a child, it was the place names
[00:16.92] Singin' at me as the first thing
[00:21.61] How the mouth must be employed in every corner of itself
[00:28.72] To say "Appalacicola" or "Hushpukena," like "Gweebarra"
[00:34.61]
[00:37.39] A promise softly sung of somewhere else
[00:43.57] And as a young man, blessed to pass so many road signs
[00:50.25] And have my foreign ear made fresh again on each unlikely sound
[00:56.94] But feel at home, hearin' a music that few still understand
[01:03.71] A butchered tongue still singin' here above the ground
[01:11.15] The ears were chopped from young men if the pitch cap didn't kill them
[01:19.10] They are buried without scalp in the shattered bedrock of our home
[01:26.18] You may never know your fortune
[01:29.46] Until the distance has been shown between what is lost forever
[01:35.08] And what can still be known
[01:39.04] So far from home to have a stranger call you, "Darling"
[01:45.98] And have your guarded heart be lifted like a child up by the hand
[01:52.72] In some town that just means "Home" to them
[01:56.65] With no translator left to sound
[01:59.46] A butchered tongue still singin' here above the ground
[02:03.41]