Lone Pine - Darrell Scott

Sunrise will find him

Drinking coffee and cream

There’s a fire in the oven

Eating biscuits and beans

W.H.

Auden lies open face-down

A Miles Davis solo is floating around

He sits there and thinks

About the poem he just read

How it might fit together

With the day that’s ahead

Well his mama said, «Son, you’re getting set in your ways

And your dad always wanted to pass on this place

You got the name you got the farm now don’t break the line»

Lone pine, lone pine, lone pine

Two years in Afghanistan

His nerves on display

It’s almost been six

Since he came home to stay

The farm’s never looked better

In all the years it’s been there

Granddads and fathers

Never gave it such care

When he returned from that far away world

His grandmother said «Now go find you a girl;

You got the name you got the farm now don’t break the line»

Lone pine, lone pine, lone pine

And he works through his day

And there’s always a plan

There’s a rhythm and pleasure

To his footstep and hand

He cuts wood for the winter and he plants in the spring

The gardens of summer and the hope that they bring

And sundown and daybreak alone mark the time

Lone pine, lone pine, lone pine