The reproach in your daughter's most beautiful face
made me wonder just how she could know
of that something that happened between you and me

so much more than a long time ago

Her mother, I can see, lives within her still

cause she looked at me with her eyes
though I had only just met her right then
I feel that she peeled back my guilty disguise


Did i break the thread, or did you break the thread?
well at this point we could ask who cares

as for the promises broken and frayed
it's 19 years late for repairs


The grey pewter vase held the deep red rose,
one piece of coral shone white,
by the brass candlestick near your red velvet coat,

is everything I can recall of one night

Will you please tell me why I remember these things

after all of this time, I don't know
i must have left all those feelings inside
cause that year I had no courage to show


Was i the name you could never pronounce?
or did i even figure at all?

all of this happened before she was born
did i shadow her young pencil marks on the wall


Still i am sure i was only but one
of a number who darkened that door
of your home and your hearth and your family and wife

who'd been darkened so often before

Oh, the red leaf looks to the hard gray stone

to each other, they know what they mean
somewhere, their future is still yet to come
in ways that are yet as of now unforeseen