The lake laid still, covered in snow
The ice was melting on the other shore
I stood out there amongst the waves
of memories that came for me

I went back home to fix it up
To scrub it down, to sweep it out
To change the locks, to change my home,
and leave it there alone

As I left it there so long ago

In those summers where I culled my youth
In the basement where I learned to
Pieces shifting across the board
It was all I wanted, and more

A room so small, it filled me up
In that hole where I grew up
I put my back against the wall,
and hunkered there, and lost it all

I went to town in my daddy’s truck
Read a novel in a parking lot,
Took a drive passed my old girl’s house
I didn’t stop, I didn’t turn around

I didn’t want to see her, anyhow

The lake stirred gently under melting snow
The waters crashed silent onto other shores
I stood out there amongst the breeze
that picked me up and carried me

I went back home to turn it over
and hand the keys to some new owner
I hope his children can laugh and play
in those halls and bedrooms I used to stay

I hope it can be a home again
Someday

The clear blue skies that I remembered then
are just as I came here before, so long it’s been
Like a rush of green in the face of spring
with the whispers of heat that summer will bring

The tall grass has taken the farmhouse, as I’ve seen it before,
as it always will, untamed by any mower, I’m sure
The smell of wild onions and the rustle of tiny life
follow me through those hills and valleys of light

I take it into me, this foreign land
I carry it with me wherever I am
Two years of happiness, two years of life
ended as they began, driving into the night

Cruising into town as the sun goes down
through those old lanes and streets I’d drive around
Past the bar and temple where I used to see
those friends and lovers I’ve left behind me

I meet them for drinks back at the local place,
the handful of them that I’ve left here and can’t replace
The laughter comes easy, as it always has,
as it will for this last time, now forever in the past

I take it into me, this foreign land
I carry it with me wherever I am
Two years of happiness, two years of life
Ended as they began, driving into the night