[Soldier:]
Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
[Girl:]
Far from the hills and the sea-swelled Carolinas
That’s where my true love lies
[Soldier:]
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
[Girl:]
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a-chew upon your bones so dry
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then
[Girl:]
When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
[Soldier:]
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
[Soldier:]
But O did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile?
[Girl:]
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
[Soldier:]
Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
This skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you
[Soldier and Girl:]
But O my love though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind