In the place where I grew up
You can see how things wear out

How moss falls from the trees
How some still sways about
How rust has taken over
And turned
Metal into red

How wood has turned
From brown to gray
And cracks began to spread

In the place where I grew up
You can see
That time has surely passed

You can see that though
We’ve all grown up
Some things always last

The memories of our bare feet
Skipping
Down
The road

To Maw-Maw’s
Where we could smell
Hot gumbo on the stove

The sound of rusty chains
Swings swaying with
The wind

Voices drifting to and fro
Telling stories of where we’ve been

Purple flowers
That grow like weeds
At the start of every spring

I’d pick them all and put them
In my pockets as I’d sing

We left our marks on all of it
The road, the grass
The wood

But it seems as if
These old keepsakes
Have done us all some good

These materials and these places
These objects
Left to dust

Are full of all our memories
And have left their mark on us

The things my family built
Must have built us too

Because they’ve stayed strong
So long
After everything we’ve put them through

Things will wither
Away with time
Some things don’t last forever

But this family
Who built my home
Also put my heart
Together

So whatever comes and goes
I know
I’ll always return

To this place
Where I grew up
To this place
In which I learned

That family
Is the one thing
That doesn’t ever go away

So no matter where
I go
My heart is here
To stay