Snake Lore Paroles

and the radio played a country song
about a man who had fallen out of grace with god
and now needed something beyond those swinging doors
he was broke down and chained
sold out, spin into ruin
in barrooms

i fell asleep again
and as we passed by a school bus
i fell into dreams

in dreams, i saw a snake whose head had been hacked off
come back together just like that and bite a dog

and i saw my great grandmother ethel in her garden
chopping snakes to pieces with a shovel
and i saw my grandfather hold up a snake to the fire
and when it got close its legs popped out of its sides
like lizard legs, to hold back the flames it began to sing

and i dreamed i saw a snake grow large and long
and spread out across the earth
until it covered the hills and towns and valleys
and became a great river
and it thundered with ships and swimming beasts
and it took men, so men feared the river
and their sons feared the river
and i saw the river became a sea
and then it was a river again
and i saw the river become a stream
and then it was a thin and rocky creek
i saw the creek ice over in the winter
and then fall fast in the spring
and it settled the cracked mud in the depths of summer
come fall it was a snake again
and it moved off into the brush
and was gone