Resurrection Fern

In our days, we will live like our ghosts will live

Pitching glass at the cornfield crows and foldin' 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 train will that take that word, that fledgling bird

And the falling 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 bound in bailing 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, but what'd we get?

Like stubborn boys with big green eyes, we'll see everything

In the timid shade of the autumn leaves and buzzard's wing

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire

Our tender bellies are wound around in bailing wire

All the more a pair of underwater pearls

Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern