White Hinterland - Hometown Hooray lyrics

Down by the old stone church Where the joe-pye weed and the mallows grow Those petals bigger then my fist Watch them bob and bow when the wind does blow There grows a cypress tree And in its trunk I carved you name And right beside it I carved mine They'll give you the hometown hooray When you come home, baby Bronze your combat boots And set your bones in clay Write down every word you ever had to say No one wants to believe you died in vain The first spring that you were gone The women who lived on the flat roof-tops Had sherds sewn with quickly germinating seeds of greens In all of their Sapphic celebrations They held fires and dances, chanted your name Tied yellow ribbons round the trunks of trees in town They'll give you the hometown hooray When you come home, baby Bronze your combat boots And set your bones in clay Write down every word you ever had to say With Homeric undertones and half the length But the skies held a collusion of their own And on the sunniest day there ever was You died at the tusk of a bayonet And Aphrodite found your body Sprinkled nectar in your wounds And you blood dripped red anemones That shimmered just like precious stones And they floated down the riverbank To the tributary that now shares your name And the rapids from then on ran red They run red to this day They'll give you the hometown hooray When you come home, baby Oh bronze your combat boots And set your bones in clay Write down every word you ever had to say With Homeric undertones and half the length We used to walk past the blue schoolhouse We wore our love like it was a crown And our skin was a map we knew by heart We never once got lost We never once got lost No one wants to believe you died in vain The Sapphic women who love you so Still cry every spring when the fennel goes And the wheat and the barley and the hardy rye Wither and go to seed I walk down to the old stone church Where the joe-pye weed and the mallows grow Those petals droop now heavy with rain Watch them bob and bow when the wind does blow There, my favorite cypress tree As tall as the steeples I can see They've tied a yellow-ribbon 'round its trunk That covers your name where I carved it twice I rip that ribbon off the tree Burn it down by the river that now shares your name Place the ash where the water ravenously licks the riverbank We used to walk past the blue schoolhouse We wore our love like it was a crown And our skin was a map I knew by heart We never once got lost We never once got lost No one wants to believe you died in vain