Your Many Glories

As a young boy I accepted where I lived A place the past meant more than the now It was a town your parents could easily fall Into the trap of what yesterday’s heroes allowed My father plowed his garden like a graveyard He dug and piled the dirt three feet high Planting and plowing went on forever The harvest showed him how to live so he could die Every day and every year you’re around… Reaches deep to create your many glories… Time stands you up then lays you down… While you turn those memories into stories… You learn to tell about your hometown On the day-shift mama wove a carpet pattern For the richest factory owner on the Carolina shore She tucked and twisted threads tight and clean Finished up while the foreman asked for more She never knew the value of those rugs Except as patterns on a weaving machine But she moved the threads as if that one rug Would someday lie inside a mansion of her dreams Every day and every year you’re around Reaches deep to create your many glories Time stands you up then lays you down While you turn those memories into stories You learn to tell about your hometown Daddy once drove through a neighbor’s fence After drinking way past the midnight hour Sunday morning hangovers kept him home While mama sang in the Second Baptist Choir Every morning I’d wake up to country music Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Ernest Tubb As my parents sat beside that old tube radio Their faces told me they had already given up Every day and every year you’re around Reaches deep to create your many glories Time stands you up then lays you down While you turn those memories into stories You learn to tell about your hometown I tried to leave that place a hundred times But I always found excuses at my side Growing up sometimes has such a scar That all your youth is spent trying to hide Regret is a lasting cost of never leaving Witness to a past that will not go away Until you courage up and find your place Among the crowds determined to stay