O Rose when I think of you Wherever you're blooming Alone or with someone I know Well, it shakes and it splits me To think that you could forget me And I won't lie and say otherwise But, Rose, I was just trying to Paint a picture for you but the canvas Was cracked and the colors untrue And I only sang the bitterest tunes O mother I have never felt so good Having married the world I lost my last love and I married the world The bridges, the ravens, and the squirrels To hide among the black trees The black ships and red seas The long nights of avarice and fear Can be as sweet as the sunrise The blue and the brown eyes And the long skies from horizon to here O brother I could never be so free As the rain or the buckling breeze But if I keep them near me And deep here within me Well, brother, ain't that as free as I could be And now, Rose, when I think of you The cold never comes And, Rose, believe me, I think of you each day But the world that I was shown Will be the world in which I'm grown Even if I am to be born to it alone Even if I must go forth in it alone Even if I'm left to worship on my own Swinging drunk here on the porches without you Singing for you in the distances alone Singing for you in the distances alone Singing for you in the distances alone