Mary Chapin Carpenter - Between The Wars (Charleston 1937) lyrics

Take the train down Friday next, In summer hat and linen dress Hail a taxi at the station There will be artichokes and cabbages, Sweet honeycombs and radishes To feed your grateful nation Bring paper, easel, pen and ink To set up on the lawn Where summer mornings brim with light And evenings fill with birdsong Between the wars Ginger cakes are served with tea Your lovers orbit endlessly And your children march like soldiers Their nets for catching bu*terflies Fill up with wind and sit up high Like rifles at their shoulders But this is where you fled the world This is where you gather Take up take up your skirts and twirl Like angels through the asters Between the wars A telegram arrives from Spain The earth falls off its axis Grief hands down a kind of pain You can't prepare or practice You paint the tables, paint the walls The mantles, mirrors, lamps and halls Paint every single surface No corner here will go untouched By loss and love and by your brush Such emptiness is worthless There are no ghosts except the ones Leaving us behind We wave and shout come back come back Frozen now in time Between the wars