[Verse 1] The north fence leaned toward the road For longer than we liked to say My sister brought a level over And two cold sodas Saturday We measured twice, then lost the pencil Found it tucked behind her ear The dog inspected every post As if the line was his career [Pre-Chorus] By noon the shadows crossed the grass We had half a fence and time to laugh [Chorus] The fence we finished stands up straight But that's not why I like this day We traded stories with the screws And sang the paint right off our shoes The boards can weather, years can pass We'll know who held the other half The fence we finished in the sun Made more than one good thing get done [Verse 2] The neighbor stopped with apple slices And told us where the old line ran He'd helped our mother build the first one With a borrowed saw and steady hands We set the last post near the lilacs And let him sign beneath the rail My sister took a crooked photo While the dog sat squarely on the pail [Chorus] The fence we finished stands up straight But that's not why I like this day We traded stories with the screws And sang the paint right off our shoes The boards can weather, years can pass We'll know who held the other half The fence we finished in the sun Made more than one good thing get done [Instrumental - dobro and Rhodes, eight bars] [Bridge] When I was little, she would lift me To see the field beyond the yard Now she passed me one last board And said, that part was never hard [Final Chorus] The fence we finished stands up straight But that's not why I like this day We made the kind of memory That lets a plain old yard feel new The boards can weather, years can pass We'll know who held the other half The fence we finished in the sun Made more than one good thing get done [Outro] We left the gate a little open For the neighbor and the dog.
