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david ackles - montana song lyrics

i went out to montana
with a bible on my arm
looking for my fathers
on a long+abandoned farm
and i found what i came looking for

i drove into a churchyard
of what used to be the town;
walked along a cowpath
through the fences falling down
’til i found what i came looking for

through the dust of summer noons
over grass long dying
to read the stone and lumber runes
where my past was lying
high among hillsides and windmill bones
soft among oak trees and chimney stones
blew the wind that i came looking for

and the wind blew over the dry land
and dusted my city soul clean
to read in my great+grandfather’s hand
from his bible newly seen:

born jamеs mckennon, 1862
married leantha, 1884
two sons born in montana
praisе the lord!
the gentle wind
of passing time
closed the bible pages
and took my hand
and had me climb
closer to the ages

the picket fence, the lattice frame
the garden gone to seed
leantha with the fragile name
defying place and need
declares this bit of prairie “tame,”
and sees her fingers bleed;
and knows her sons won’t live the same
but she must live her creed

the fallen barn, the broken plow
the hoofprint+hardened clay;
where is the farmer, now
who built his dream this way?
who felled the tree and cut the bough
and made the land obey
who taught his sons as he knew how
but could not make them stay
who watched until the darkness fell
to know the boys were gone
and never loved the land so well
from that day on
“father james,” they wrote him
each a letter once a year;
words of change that broke him
with the new age that was here
and the new world they’d gone looking for

the clouds arose
like phantom herds
and by the dappled lighting
i read again
the last few words
in a woman’s writing:

march 1st, 1921
last night, papa died
left one plow, a horse, his gun
this bible, and his bride

the long grass moved beside me
in the gentle summer rain
and made a path to guide me
to a sudden mound of grain

a man and wife are buried there
children to the land
with young green tendrils in her hair
and seedlings in his hand
i went out to montana
with a bible on my arm
looking for my fathers
on a long+abandoned farm
and i found what i came looking for

- david ackles lyrics

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