Autumn

[Verse 1]
Driven through by her own sword
Summer died last night alone
Even the ghosts huddled up for warmth
Autumn has come to my hometown

[Verse 2]
Friendly voices, dead and gone
Singing "Star of the Country Down"
Even the ghosts help raise the barn
Here now in my hometown

[Chorus 1]
When out of the massing that bodes and bides in the cold west
Flew a waxwing who froze and died against my breast
All the while, rain, like a weed in the tide, swans and lists
Down on the gossiping lawns, saying tsk tsk tsk

[Verse 3]
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

[Verse 4]
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

[Chorus 2]
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, here in my home
And I laugh when you speak of my pleasure-seeking

[Bridge]
Among the tall pines
Along the lay-lines
Here, where the loon keens
There, where the moon leans
There, where I know my violent love lays down
In a row of silent, dove-gray days
Here in a row of silent, dove-gray days

[Verse 5]
Wherever I go, I am snowbound
By thoughts of him whom I would sun
I loved them all, one by one
Cannot gain ground, cannot outrun

[Verse 6]
But time marches along
You can't always stick around
But, when the final count is done
I will be in my hometown

[Refrain]
I will be in my hometown