I remember the day of the tennessee flood
The sound of the scream and the sight of the blood
My son he saw as the animal died
In the jaws of the dog as the river ran by
I said, "come back soon."
It's there on the page of the book that I read
The boy grew up and the yearling was dead
He stood at the gate with the angel on guard
And wept for the death of his little boy heart
I say, "come back soon."
We wake in the night in the womb of the world
We beat our fists on the door
We cannot breathe in this sea that swirls
So we groan in this great darkness
For deliverance
Deliverance, o lord
I sit on the bench at the bend in the trail
And I can feel in the fall the final exhale
The trees of the field all wring their hands
And the leaves go by like a funeral band
I say, "come back soon."
We wake in the night in the womb of the world
We beat our fists on the door
We cannot breathe in this sea that swirls
So we groan in this great darkness
Are we alone in this great darkness?
If nature's red in tooth and in claw
Then it seems to me that she's an outlaw
'Cause every death is a question mark
At the end of the book of a beating heart
And the answer is scrawled in the silent dark
On the dome of the sky in a billion stars
But we cannot read these angel tongues
And we cannot stare at the burning sun
And we cannot sing with these broken lungs
So we kick in the womb and we beg to be born
Deliverance!
Deliverance, o lord!
