Bark and Ink

[Intro]
[Verse]
The gate is a ghost of iron and rust
My boots kick up the November dust
The orchard is sleeping in tangled grey
I haven't been back since you went away
The branches are heavy with shadows of gold
Stories you whispered and secrets you told
[Pre-Chorus]
The wind is a thief in the grass
Watching the seasons all pass
It pulls at the threads of my coat
Like a lump in my throat
[Chorus]
Oh, the apples are small and they’re sour
But they bloom in the very last hour
I’m tracing your name in the wood
The way that a grandson should
The recipes crinkle and fold
Keeping us safe from the cold
[Post-Chorus]
Safe from the cold
In the stories you told
[Verse]
I find where we carved out a heart in the bark
A jagged reminder of light in the dark
The letters are stretched by the years and the rain
A soft kind of healing, a dull kind of pain
My pocket is heavy with cards written thin
With butter and cinnamon soaked in the skin
[Pre-Chorus]
The wind is a thief in the grass
Watching the seasons all pass
It pulls at the threads of my coat
Like a lump in my throat
[Chorus]
Oh, the apples are small and they’re sour
But they bloom in the very last hour
I’m tracing your name in the wood
The way that a grandson should
The recipes crinkle and fold
Keeping us safe from the cold
[Bridge]
The piano is playing a tune in my head
The words that you lived, not the words that you said
The banjo is humming a low, lonesome sound
As red winter fruit hits the frost on the ground
It’s bitter, it’s biting, it’s true
It’s all that I have left of you
[Verse]
The sun is a sliver of silver and white
Chasing the edges of oncoming night
I’ll take just one bite of the fruit on the vine
To taste all the years when the garden was mine
The dry grass is tangling around my old boots
But love has a way of protecting the roots
[Chorus]
Oh, the apples are small and they’re sour
But they bloom in the very last hour
I’m tracing your name in the wood
The way that a grandson should
The recipes crinkle and fold
Keeping us safe from the cold
[Outro]