Greg Brown - Billy From the Hills lyrics

No one now knows too much about these woods, They got lost, they wouldn't know where to go. Tribe's been gone a long time, small farmers got blowed out, Maybe there ain't even that much left to know. You can strip the trees, foul the streams, try to hide in a progressive dream. Ease into the comfort that k**s. Before I do that, I'll grab my pack, And disappear with Billy from the hills. Blood flows back and back and back and back, Like a river from a secret source. I feel it wild in me; I pitched my camp At the fork where knowledge meets remorse. Women sing in me that song from the ancient fire, I just open my mouth and what comes out gives me chills. I got my song from a secret place, I got my face from Billy from the hills. A 40-inch barrel on that shotgun, Steel traps in a cane pack on his back. Eighteen years old, surrounded by the Ozarks, Ain't one little bit of that boy that's slack. If you're looking for a helping hand, He'll give you one, you know he will. If you're looking for trouble, huh-uh, turn around, You don't want to mess with Billy from the hills. Some folks dance cool, all angles and swaying hips, Sensual as all get out and in. Me, I'm a hick, and I dance like one, I just kind of jump around and grin. I know a guy, he doesn't dance too much, But when he does, he gives everyone a thrill You might run away or s** it up and stay, When he dances, Billy from the hills. There's a lantern lit on a Missouri night, A woman writing poems by a stove. She knows the fox's whereabouts by knoll, by gulch, by yelp, As he runs at night through her mother love. Her memory to me is like watercress from a spring-fed stream, Fresh and aching as a mockingbird's trill. She lives in me; I try to look until I can see for her and her boy, Billy from the hills. It's a drifting time, people are fascinated by screens, No idea what's on the other side. We stare at doom like an uptight groom, And live our lives like a drunken bride. Tonight I feel something on the wind, Deep inside where we have to die or k**. Something I know I didn't know I knew, I learned from Billy from the hills