Ben Cooper - Family Portrait lyrics

So we start with my father as a boy barely spoke a word of english Fell in love from a distance He watched her working from the back fence He learned some words and some clever turns of phrase from his father's book of poets She wasn't taken in that instant But grew impressed with his persistence They met each other out by moonlight Made love in the nearby woods Then her folks became suspicious When her cycle broke it settled it They stole away without their goodbyes Got married in a foreign town Made their way as best as they could Found jobs and settled down And then time moved on I was born in a river of blood on sheets from the wedding day The room was dark and the stench was thick My father couldn't stand the smell of it Mama died in the night cause the nearest doctor couldn't stem the blood loss Father cried out on the back porch My sister held me at the neighbor's house Oh my there was a storm then, there was a flood of a different kind Father's eyes were often vacant But his hands were rarely quiet Sister learned to take her hits well, both from life and the physical kind But I was never one to lie down, despite who picked the fight So we designed our hells Father turned into a drinker A dark ba*tard with a wooden heart Sister learned to be a mother Before she ever played another part And I became a little terror I lashed out at whatever's around Took some time before I settled To find a mind that was somewhat sound And as it always does, time marched on Six years later father died in the very same bedroom Many said it was the grief that did it I'd have to say it's cause he hung himself To be honest neither sister nor myself ever much regret his pa**ing But I admit it was a nice thing To always know that we could feed ourselves