[Intro] Soft rain in the reeds Mud on the barrel You’re smiling with crooked teeth Too small for that uniform Lantern light on the shovel You dig like a kid on a shore Everyone says stay home The sky says come and see Her braid caught in brambles Boots one size too wide You trace eagles in air Pretend they don’t circle us [Verse 1] You pull the rifle from the sand Like a promise like a curse Pose for the mirror in the river Face rippling into someone worse Mother’s hands still shaking As she patches up your pack She looks past you at the doorway As if the doorway might look back A girl with a radio laughs Tin songs in the tall wet grass You dance where the flies hang heavy Over trenches half like graves [Chorus] (come and see) How the smoke spells your name How the fire tastes the same On houses on hands on hair (come and see) Every face you can’t forget Stacked in the corners of your head Like cords of wood like prayer [Verse 2] Village found by its silence Chickens pacing in the road Soup still warm on the table No one left to lift the spoons You step around upended chairs Whisper greetings to the dust Drag bodies out of doorframes Till your voice gives out and rusts Crowd in the barn like cattle Mouths pressed to wool You reach for a child by the window Get a rifle to your skull [Chorus] (come and see) How they laugh while they pour How the doors turn into floors How the choir is all in smoke (come and see) You are forced to watch it burn Every breath a broken word Every breath cough and choke [Bridge] You shoot at the river’s face Bullets stitching through the past Hit a man with a tiny mustache Lying dead in newsreel glass He moves backwards in the flicker Bombs crawl up into the sky You beg the film to keep rewinding For the children not to die But the reel keeps eating light Black frames bite your eyes You fire till the gun says empty The forest never replies [Chorus] (come and see) You grow old in a single day Hair gone colorless with clay Ear still ringing from their song (come and see) You are smaller than your gun You are bigger than your lungs You are certain this is wrong [Outro] Soft rain in the reeds Ash on the barrel You stare with broken eyes Too old for that uniform [end song]
