Angeline - James McMurtry

Angeline, Angeline, darker nights I’ve never seen

I don’t love these East Texas pines

Where I can’t find my sleep in the shadows so deep

And dark as the doubts in my mind

Freight train on the trestle rolling east towards the Natchez

Like the one I got off of so long ago

Outside of a small town where I didn’t mean to settle down

Not knowing the seeds I would sow

Barefoot in the autumn weeds, cotton dress hanging to your knees

To the eyes of a stranger you offered a smile

Took a job in your daddy’s fields, didn’t seem like such a bad deal

At least it would do for a while

We were both young and unabashed, we took what life offered

While your folks were distracted or too tired to care

As the cold gripped the land the fates forced our hand

Your dresses fit tighter with the spring in the air

Now I watch the trains rattle on from the seat of the tractor

Your daddy’s old harness still hangs in the barn

And your mama don’t like it that our children all scattered

She swears it’s my blood, it was not meant to farm

And you and I don’t talk a lot, we don’t really have to

We’ve spent many a year reading each other’s minds

We gave up the lightning, now we don’t bother fighting

These things will happen in time

Angeline, Angeline, darker nights I’ve never seen

I don’t love these East Texas pines

Where I can’t find my sleep in the shadows so deep

And dark as the doubts in my mind