Muddy Hymnal

We found your name across the chapel door

Carved in cursive with a table fork

Muddy hymnals and some boot marks where you'd been

The shaking preacher told the captain's man,

"The rightous suffer in a fallen land"

And pulled the shade to keep the crowd from peeking in

We found your children by the tavern door

With wooden buttons and an apple core

Playing house and telling everyone you drowned

The begging choir told the captain's man,

"We all assume the worst the best we can"

And for a round or two they're glad they tracked you down

We found you sleeping by your lover's stone

A ream of paper and a telephone

A broken bow across a long lost violin

Your lover's angel told the captain's man,

"It never ends the way we had it planed"

And kissed her palm and placed it on your dreaming hand