The pines don’t judge and the creek don’t tell You been standing in that same damn spot since I learned your smell Hat tilted low like the world’s a joke you already heard Scarecrow mask on, stuffing showing at the collar of your shirt I walk the fence line like I don’t already know the game You don’t have to chase me when the quiet does your name You just wait there crooked, looking half-alive, half-gone And I come back every evening like the field still belongs to someone Oh-oh no I see your strawman, hat tilted low Scarecrow mask hiding those dead man’s eyes The mask that makes me love you so You don’t even have to move You just let the dark do what you already proved And I fall for the hollow I already know You let the twine fray just enough I can see the rot Let a little straw fall when the wind gets hot That’s the trick, ain’t it? You show me the dead Then you tilt that brim and I forget what you said I tell my own mouth “this time I walk past” Then you breathe that slow country nothing and I don’t last Peace of the woods never felt this mean You wear the silence like a well-rehearsed scene Oh-oh no I see your strawman, hat tilted low Scarecrow mask hiding those dead man’s eyes The mask that makes me love you so I know what you are when the light gets thin I know that look ain’t living, it’s just pulled-on skin Still I keep coming back like I want to be owned By the thing behind the mask that leaves me alone You could take it off. You never will. That’s the part that holds me still. If I saw the real face I’d have to hate the night So you keep the dead man covered and I keep calling it right Don’t take it off Don’t you ever take it off If I saw what you really are I’d have to walk Keep it tilted low, keep the dead man hid That’s the only version of you I still let in I lie down in the pine straw like I chose this ground You stand over me quiet, not making a sound Hat still low, eyes still gone, mask still on And I say “I see you” like that means I’ve won But I didn’t win nothing I just learned how to stay Loving the scarecrow That already threw me away Oh-oh no… I see your strawman Hat tilted low Scarecrow mask Hiding those dead man’s eyes The mask that makes me love you The mask that makes me love you so.
