Seventh Night 七夕

[Verse 1] Six hundred paces out and the birds hold Six hundred more and my legs start to go She's a lamp on the far bank, not a face yet I've walked a year to find out how she's changed Last time she'd cut her hair and didn't mention it I noticed at the end. I never said The magpies don't complain. They just take it The whole weight of a man on their backs [Pre-Chorus] And she's already talking before I'm across [Chorus] Don't tell me you missed me Say what you did with the year I've got one night to know you again Don't waste it standing there [Verse 2] So I tell her the calf died in April She tells me the loom's been jamming since spring She says, I stopped keeping the count in December And I don't ask her what that means We eat. She takes my hands and turns them over Reads the new cracks like she reads thread She says, you're getting old on the wrong side of the river I say, so are you. She says, I know [Chorus] Don't tell me you missed me Say what you did with the year I've got one night to know you again Don't waste it standing there [Bridge] Down there they hang lanterns and call it romance They tell it with the ending left off Nobody writes what she says at the door With her coat on, at the edge of the dark [Outro] She says, one of these years I'm not going to come She says, don't you dare wait for the birds The magpies lift. The floor goes out