melancholy child

a baby with a baby

just barely seventeen

my mother mourned her innocence

as she bounced on her knee

a daddy on the road

added to the tears and trials

like silver rain they fell upon this melancholy child

the sounds of my childhood still linger in my song

my mother's lullaby that train that rain behind our home

a whippoorwill on a windowsill- it should have made me smile

but everything sounds lonely to a melancholy child

now a restless blood runs in our family

i thought i could outrun the emptiness inside of me

so i went a little crazy

and i went a little wild

trying to outdistance my own melancholy child

i met a kind and gentle man who thinks the world of me

when he looks my way

it's a woman that he sees

but when i can't explain to him the tears that fill my eyes

he takes me in his arms and rocks his melancholy child

you take a black irish temper and some solemn cherokee

a southern sense of humor and you got someone like me

there are thorns on every rose

to this i'm reconciled

they're just a little sharper to a melancholy child

and in my own babe's eyes

i see the signs of a melancholy child

heaven! help us all another melancholy child!