One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)

[Chorus]
This is how I tell it
Oh, but it’s long
One Sunday morning
Oh, one son is gone

[Verse 1]
I can see where they’re dawning
Over the sea
My father said what I had become
No-one should be

Outside I look lived in
Like the bones in a shrine
How am I forgiven?
Oh, I’ll give it time

[Verse 2]
This, I learned without warning
Holding my brow
In time he thought I would kill him
Oh, but I didn’t know how

I said it’s your god I don’t believe in
No, your Bible can’t be true
Knocked down by the long life
He cried, ’I fear what waits for you’

[Verse 3]
I can hear those bells
Spoken and gone
I feel relief, I feel well
Now he knows he was wrong

Ring ’em cold for my father
Frozen underground
Jesus, I wouldn’t bother
He belongs to me now

[Verse 4]
Something sad keeps moving
So I wandered around
I fell in love with the burden
Holding me down

Bless my mind, I miss
Being told how to live
What I learned without knowing
How much more that I owe than I can give

[Chorus]
This is how I tell it
Oh, but it’s long
One Sunday morning
Oh, one son is gone