Death In Arkansas

INTRO: F   C   F


I remember how the wood would smell
                                C
Just as the last great tree was felled

Like many that came before

It was used for a table and a door
  F       C     F
A palette and a long hall rack
                                  C
Where hung my great grandfather's hat

A stable and a barn, a bed and a seat

A roof and fence and a floor that creaked

And a coffin leaning against the wall
                               F   C  F    C
When there was a death in Arkansas


  F
I liked the wagons and the wheels
                                     C
The wind that knocked us down in the fields

And the girls with the southern drawl

And those that came before were the pictures on the wall

And the lone dogs howled and the crows would caw
                               F
When there was a death in Arkansas


        Bb
We were laid to rest under the sun
       F
And we breathed our last and it was done
        C
And the air redeemed us and we would learn

That a life was hallowed and we wouldn't burn


      F
Hands folded gently to say goodbye
                                      C
It was just this place underneath the sky

Can you see our bones hiding like a toad

In the old red dirt that is now a road

Beneath the sign that blinks off-on

And a shopping mall where the house is gone

Forgetting that a soul may call
                              F
When there is a death in Arkansas


INSTRUMENTAL: F   C   F C F   C   F


      Bb
And a quilten patch of new concrete
F
Helps the trucks roll down the street
          C
There's a Dollar Store by the setting sun

And a sign on the church says, 'His Will is Done'

I can't see the birds or find the fields

That hold my bones beneath the wheels

And a mother worries that her son won't call

And a TV stares at the breaking wall

But the lone dogs howl and the crows still call
                              F
When there is a death in Arkansas