White Hinterland - Hometown Hooray lyrics

rate me

Down by the old stone church<br />

Where the joe-pye weed and the mallows grow<br />

Those petals bigger then my fist<br />

Watch them bob and bow when the wind does blow<br />

<br />

There grows a cypress tree<br />

And in its trunk I carved you name<br />

And right beside it I carved mine<br />

<br />

They'll give you the hometown hooray<br />

When you come home, baby<br />

Bronze your combat boots<br />

And set your bones in clay<br />

Write down every word you ever had to say<br />

No one wants to believe you died in vain<br />

<br />

The first spring that you were gone<br />

The women who lived on the flat roof-tops<br />

Had sherds sewn with quickly germinating seeds of greens<br />

<br />

In all of their Sapphic celebrations<br />

They held fires and dances, chanted your name<br />

Tied yellow ribbons round the trunks of trees in town<br />

<br />

They'll give you the hometown hooray<br />

When you come home, baby<br />

Bronze your combat boots<br />

And set your bones in clay<br />

Write down every word you ever had to say<br />

With Homeric undertones and half the length<br />

<br />

But the skies held a collusion of their own<br />

And on the sunniest day there ever was<br />

You died at the tusk of a bayonet<br />

And Aphrodite found your body<br />

Sprinkled nectar in your wounds<br />

And you blood dripped red anemones<br />

That shimmered just like precious stones<br />

<br />

And they floated down the riverbank<br />

To the tributary that now shares your name<br />

And the rapids from then on ran red<br />

They run red to this day<br />

<br />

They'll give you the hometown hooray<br />

When you come home, baby<br />

Oh bronze your combat boots<br />

And set your bones in clay<br />

Write down every word you ever had to say<br />

With Homeric undertones and half the length<br />

<br />

We used to walk past the blue schoolhouse<br />

We wore our love like it was a crown<br />

And our skin was a map we knew by heart<br />

We never once got lost<br />

We never once got lost<br />

No one wants to believe you died in vain<br />

<br />

The Sapphic women who love you so<br />

Still cry every spring when the fennel goes<br />

And the wheat and the barley and the hardy rye<br />

Wither and go to seed<br />

<br />

I walk down to the old stone church <br />

where the joe-pye weed and the mallows grow<br />

Those petals droop now heavy with rain<br />

watch them bob and bow when the wind does blow<br />

<br />

There, my favorite cypress tree<br />

As tall as the steeples I can see<br />

They've tied a yellow-ribbon ?round its trunk <br />

that covers your name where I carved it twice<br />

<br />

I rip that ribbon off the tree<br />

Burn it down by the river that now shares your name<br />

Place the ash where the water ravenously licks the riverbank<br />

<br />

We used to walk past the blue schoolhouse<br />

We wore our love like it was a crown<br />

And our skin was a map I knew by heart<br />

We never once got lost<br />

We never once got lost<br />

No one wants to believe you died in vain<br />