Caroline Herring Trace
First of many flowers
Growing close behind the wall
Flax and seed, want and need
The wonder of it all
There’s a place in that garden
We’ve both been there, darling
I won’t forget
That day we met long ago
Woods of miles and acres
Winding through the hills
Moaning of the barnyard dogs
And barbed wire fences
There’s a place in that countryside
You’ll build a house so deep and wide
I can see the stones
The fires and thrones of long ago
Long ago
Rooms of abandoned houses in my mind
Long ago
Back porch living suit me fine
There were paints of blue and green
I was somewhere in between
Mama rings the dinner bell
Women and men
Move towards the sacred sound
Of a chiming metal wind
Daddy he flips a dime
How will we survive this time
Long ago
There were sharecropping farmers on the land
Long ago
All that’s left are rusty nails in your hand
There were walls of yellow hue
Yeah, I learned a thing or two
The Trace winds 1000 ways
The Natchez drew it well
Their hallowed bones the native ones
Ours a merchants’ trail
There are places in that road
Where lie the seeds we sowed
I won’t forget
That day we met long ago
Long ago
