The Stranger

Stranger, I know where you? ll find her
Down the road from here
About a mile and a quarter
You? ll know the place by a chucky barn
Stands in the field by a run-down farm by a pond
Filled up with stagnant water
Then you? ll see a shack nearby you? ll ask yourself
I wonder why it looks so cold and lifeless all around
Chimney rocks are falling out
It looks as though the fire? s gone out on the biggest part
Where the house is rutted down.

No stranger, I ain? t seen you lately
She don? t come around near like she used to
You got a picture in your mind: pretty, gentle, sweet and kind
You practiced every word you? re gonna say
You? ll call her name but she won? t hear you
She? s in the graveyard near you
She died ten years ago last May.

There was a man she talked about
I meant she had to live without
Years ago, he just turned and left one day
He left her with an unborn child
And her love for him will never die
And an aching heart sent her to an early grave.

Yes, stranger I know who you are
I recognize you from afar
But you ain? t never seen me not one time
Yes, I know that you? re my dad
From pictures that my mamma had
And it was me and mamma that you left behind.

Stranger, you will find me there
In peaceful sleep on yonder hill
Where we once walked as I do still
To pick her flowers from the field.

Mamma don? t need you anymore
And I don? t need you like before
You can go on back to where you went before
You? re just a stranger...