Lyrics

Father I
© 2011 Wolff Bowden

Father I went to the city to buy you some gold
Father I, Father I just had enough for this song
Father I know that you’ve loved us for seventy years
Father before we were born you were dreaming us here

When we replay the days I see your great grey mane
caught in the wind of the things that you bought and you sold
and when the night came down you threw your cowboy crown
and said with a shrug that there’s nothing a man really owns
but his breath and his laughter and bones

Father I thank you for choosing my mother for me
Father I Father she’s as wild as a wave on the sea
Father she carried me over the sinister deep
Father I lived in the blue long before I could breathe

When we replay the days I see your great grey mane
caught in the wind on the hills where the cottonwood grows
and with your rifle poised you heard the rattler’s voice
but lowered your gun ‘cause a brave man lets everything roam
in this wilderness none of us owns

Father I wandered when I quit the currency game
Father the one that the men dressed in business suits play
Father you taught me that all of the things those men buy
can’t keep the ache from their days or the tears from their eyes

When we replay the days I see your great grey mane
caught in the wind of the things that you bought and you sold
and when the night came down you threw your cowboy crown
and said with a shrug that there’s nothing a man really owns
but his breath and his laughter and bones