Joe Henry Follow

A fence is stretched across my brow
A divided country then and now
And you the border guard
My caravan waved off the track
With dusty miners hid in back

Their faces glowing hard
Bruised and black and hunkered down
From sparkling fuses underground

And digging the way through
To surface on some other side
With time to burn, a past to hide
And one eye out for you

With letters cut from magazines
I hide my hand and speak between
The truth and what I need
I lift the face of something strong
To mask the shadow growing long

And blur what it concedes
I've found myself out on a range
Found the mirror staring strange

Demanding what I knew
Of tell-tale stripes across my back
The eyes I keep each blue and black
And both of them out for you

Now I've crossed into some northern town
Where winds rise up and stars come down
And no one knows my name
I stitch a coat from what I find
And weave a story in my mind

With nothing such as blame
I scrawl out pages, watch them burn
The jumpy horses nod in turn

The way I need them to
Before I run them to the fields
As buildings blaze and dot the hills
Like all eyes out for you