Muddy Hymnal Lyrics

Muddy Hymnal

we found your name across the chapel door 



carved in cursive with a table fork 



muddy hymnals 



and some bootmarks where you'd been 







the shaking preacher told the captain's man 



the righteous suffer in a fallen land 



and pulled the shade 



to keep the crowd from peeking in 







we found your children by the tavern door 



with wooden buttons and an apple core 



playing house 



and telling everyone you'd drowned 







the begging choir told the captain's man 



we all assume the worst the best we can 



and for a round or two 



they'd gladly track you down 







we found you sleeping by your lover's stone 



a ream of paper and a telephone 



a broken bow 



across a long lost violin 







your lover's angel told the captain's man 



it never ends the way we had it planned 



and kissed her palm 



and placed it on your dreaming head