Last night I dreamed that I was a child
Out where the pines grow wild and tall
I was trying to make it home through the forest
Before the darkness, darkness falls
I heard the wind rustling through the trees
And ghostly voices rose from the fields
I ran with my heart pounding down that broken path
With the devil snapping at my heels
I broke through the trees and there in the night
My father's house stood shining hard and bright
The branches and brambles tore my clothes and scratched my arms
But I ran 'til I fell shaking in his arms
I awoke and I imagined the hard things that pulled us apart
Will never again tear us from each other's hearts
I got dressed and to his house I did ride
From out on the road I could see its windows shining in light
I walked up the steps and I stood on the porch
And a woman I didn't recognize she came
And spoke to me through a chained door
I told her my story and who I'd come for
She said: I'm sorry son, but no one by that name
Lives here anymore
Now those whose love we wanted but didn't get
We emulate them
That's the only way we have, in our power
To get the closeness and love that we needed and desired.
So when I was a young man looking for a voice to meld with mine,
To sing my songs and to tell my stories, well I chose my father's voice.
Because there was something sacred in it to me
And when I went looking for something to wear
I put on a factory worker's clothes,
Because they were my dad's clothes
And all we know about manhood is what we have seen
And what we have learned from our fathers
And my father was my hero
And my greatest foe
Not long after he died, I had this dream,
I'm on stage, I'm in front of thousands of people,
And my dad's back from the dead and he's sitting in the audience and suddenly I'm kneeling next to him in the aisle
And for a moment we both watched the man on fire on stage
And then my dad who for years, he sat at the kitchen table, unreachable,
But I was too young, I was too stupid to understand was his depression. Well I kneel next to him in the aisle,
And I brush his forearm
And I say: look dad.
That guy on stage
That's how I see you
My father's house shines hard and bright
It stands like a beacon calling me in the night
Calling and calling so cold and alone
Shining 'cross this dark highway
Where our sins lie unatoned