Falls Thistlethwaite

'Round my Indiana homestead wave the cornfields
In the distance, loom the woodlands, deep and cool
Summer fills my head with scenes from childhood
Of climbing trees and dancin' like a fool

Behind closed eyes, it's just as I remember
Children's laughter chimin' through the street
My mother's silhouette stands in the doorway
Eyes framed by waves of sunset-tinted wheat

The railroad bridge beyond the spring grove heights
She's the backbone of the deep whitwater gorge
I used to step between her ties
And climb her walls with wand'ry eyes
Dreaming of a path, next noon to forge

Falls Thistlethwaite, I skinny-dipped below you
With lovers lost, whose loss was wet with tears
The mill is gone--the miller, too
Whose gristle cut your heart in two
Falls Thistlethwaite, your heartache holds me here

The time has come to call this rose my home
I've memories enough to pull me near
My mother's garden, father's grave
The woods where once I misbehaved
This Indiana town I hold so dear