Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind

Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies


Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils

All a'chew upon your bones so dry

But when the sun breaks

To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then

I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then

Then

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee

Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin


But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile

Though I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child


But when the sun breaks
To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave

For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then

I will be home then

Stems and bones and stone walls too

Could keep me from you
Scaly skin is all too few
To keep me from you


But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin

Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind