Bang the Drum Slowly –– by Ms Emmylou with Mr Guy Clark

Today is my 66^th and what would have been Daddy’s 94^th … … ! 
Had he not quite literally and far, far too soon … …  fallen down dead.

“ a good, strong pot of coffee” … … brewed and “balanced” inside that speckled, blue – enamel pot atop his own Mama Adeline’s corncob – burning cook stove … … How, at three and four and at five  years’ of age on my ( and his ) Solstice – birthdays of ours, I loved drinking that coffee of his … … sweetened with true, full – bore cow’s cream !  Taken by Daddy, as it had been, from that morning’s milking of Guernsey.

" I meant to ask you how to fix that car
I always meant to ask you about the war
And what you saw across a bridge too far
Did it leave a scar

Or how you navigated wings of fire and steel
Up where heaven had no more secrets to conceal
And still you found the ground beneath your wheels
How did it feel

Bang the drum slowly play the pipe lowly
To dust be returning from dust we begin
Bang the drum slowly I'll speak of things holy
Above and below me world without end

I meant to ask you how when everything seemed lost
And your fate was in a game of dice they tossed
There was still that line that you would never cross
At any cost

I meant to ask you how you lived what you believed
With nothing but your heart up your sleeve
And if you ever really were deceived
By the likes of me

Bang the drum slowly play the pipe lowly
To dust be returning from dust we begin
Bang the drum slowly I'll speak of things holy
Above and below me world without end

Gone now is the day and gone the sun
There is peace tonight all over Arlington
But the songs of my life will still be sung
By the light of the moon you hung

I meant to ask you how to plow that field
I meant to bring you water from the well
And be the one beside you when you fell
Could you tell

Bang the drum slowly play the pipe lowly
To dust be returning from dust we begin
Bang the drum slowly I'll speak of things holy

 
Above and below me world without end "