Country Music seems to be prone to a lot of disdain. To be sure there’s a lot of bad country music, but there’s also great country music. My favorite songs are the ones that tell stories, so I thought I might try writing one or two.
Here’s an attempt.
(Verse 1)
Remember how in olden times
We climbed the limbs of knotted pines,
And there from our tall hiding-place,
We gazed upon the world below,
We watched the people come and go
Then, when we’d wearied of the sports
Of looking down like astronauts,
I’d hold you in a last embrace,
And climb back down to Earth’s kind face.
(Chorus)
The Lights of Portland flare beyond the headlands
The ferry hauls me home across the sound.
The ghost of you still haunts me by the guard rail
My hopes for us now all but run aground.
(Verse 2)
A heron rises quietly through the starlight
Then merges with the darkness of bay
Just like the love we shared for one brief heartbeat,
That’s now for ever lost and gone away.
(Chorus)
Ed Asher Briant 