Resurrection Fern



In our days we will live 

Like our ghosts will live...

Pitching glass at the cornfield crows 

And folding clothes 



Like stubborn boys across the road 

We'll keep everything...

Grandma's gun and the black bear claw 

That took her dog 



When sister Laurie says, "Amen" 

We won't hear anything...

The ten-car trains will take that word 

That fledgling bird 



And the fallen house across the way 

It'll keep everything...

The baby's breath

Our bravery wasted and our shame



And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire 

Both our tender bellies wound in baling wire 

All the more a pair of underwater pearls 

Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern



In our days we will say 

What our ghosts will say...

We gave the world what it saw fit 

And what'd we get?



Like stubborn boys with big green eyes 

We'll see everything...

In the tender shade of the autumn leaves 

And the buzzard's wing 



And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire 

Our tender bellies are wound around in baling wire 

All the more a pair of underwater pearls 

Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern