Stones in the Road

[stoutfellow]

Since it's National Poetry Month, I thought I'd offer up a bit. This is from "Stones in the Road", a song written and sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The song is about her childhood; in this verse, the year is 1968.

When I was ten, my father held me
On his shoulder above the crowd
To see a train all draped in mourning
Passing slowly through our town.
The widow knelt with all her children
At the sacred burial ground
The TV glowed, that long hot summer,
With all the cities burning down.

I was ten that year too. I remember, more than I want to.