History Book

Like faithful oxen through the chalk

With dragging tails of history walk

Soon confuse the compass and the cross

Carefully and cursively we fill our travelling diaries with loss

Beneath an angry Bible flood

Did you and I first learn to love

In my father's car we came to know

And shivered in our painted clothes and paired like every animal below

As heavy as a history book can be

I will carry it with me oh Lord

And maybe when the bitterness has gone

There'll be sweetness on our tongues once more

Barefoot in a rowing boat

You lose your shoes and freeze your toes

And say I wear my sorrow like a crown

And throw your arms around my head and see it there in gold and red and brown

As heavy as a history book can be

I will carry it with me oh Lord

And maybe when the bitterness has gone

There'll be sweetness on our tongues once more

We'll soon forget our parents' names

Like dogs will drive the wolves away

And weep with fingertips opposed

Like a church where nobody congregates

But sweetness sings in the pasture

We throw ourselves on the mercy of the earth

If sand and salt have the answer

Then the act itself will be louder than the word

And I'll be on your side And I'll be on your side And I'll be on your side