Tanglewood Tree

Love is a tanglewood tree
In a bower of green
In a forest at dawn
Fair while the mockingbird sings
But she soon lifts her wings
And the music is gone
Young lovers in the tall grass with their hearts open wide
When the red summer poppies bloom
But love is a trackless domain
And the rumor of rain
In the late afternoon

Love is an old root that creeps
Through the meadows of sleep
When the long shadows cast
Thin as a vagrant young vine
It encircles and twines
And it holds the heart fast
Catches dreamers in the wildwood with the stars in their eyes
And the moon in their tousled hair
But love is a light in the sky
And an unspoken lie
And a half-whispered prayer

I'm walkin' down a bone-dry river
But the cool mirage runs true
I'm bankin' on the fables
Of the far, far better things we do
I'm livin' for the day of reck'nin
Countin' down the hours
I yearn away, I burn away
I turn away the fairest flower of love, 'cause darlin . . .

Love's garden of thorns, how it grows
Black crow in the corn, hummin' low
Brake nettle so pretty and wild
And thistles surround the edge of the . . .
Dim dark hour as the sun moves away
Lamenting a lost summer day
Who nurtures the faith of a child
When nothing remains to cover her eyes?
My body has a number, maybe my face has a name
Each hour like each hour before
This longing is a voice on the wind
She cultivates the wages of sin
In a Tanglewood Tree
Love is a garden of thorns
And a crow in the corn
And the brake growin' wild
Cold when the summer is spent
In the jade heart's lament
For the faith of a child
My body has a number and my face has a name
And each day looks the same to me
But love is a voice on the wind
And the wages of sin
And a tanglewood tree . . . .

-Dave Carter
from Tanglewood Tree
� 1999 Dave Carter - BMI