Driven through by her own sword
Summer died last night, alone
Even the ghosts huddled up for warmth

Autumn has come to my hometown

Friendly voices, dead and gone

Singing, Star of the country down
(Even the ghosts help raise the barn
Here now in my hometown)


When out of the massing
that bodes and bides,In the cold West

Flew a waxwing who froze and died against my breast
And all the while, rain, like a weed in the tide, swans and lisps
Down on the gossiping lawns, saying, "tsk, tsk, tsk"


I may have changed
It's hard to gauge

Time won't account for how I've aged
Would I could tie your lying tongue
Who says that leaving keeps you young


And I have got no control
Over my heart, over my mind

Over the hills, the rainclouds roll
I'll winter here, wait for a sign


To cast myself out over the water
Riven like a wishbone
You'd hardly guess

I was my own mother's daughter
I ain't naturally given to roam.
And I lay low when I return

And I move like a gurney whose wheels are squeaking
Alone in a home
And I laugh when you speak

Of my pleasure-seekin'

Among the tall pines

Along the lay-lines
Here, where the loon keens.
There, where the moon leans

where I know my violent love lays down,
in a row of silent dove-grey days
Here in a row of silent dove-grey days


Wherever I go, I am snow-bound
By thoughts of him whom I would shun

I love them all, one by one
Cannot gain ground
Cannot outrun

But time marches along
You can't always stick around
But when the final count is done

I will be in my hometown
I will be in my hometown