Scott SimpsonSongs, Poems, Stories.

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Green Grass Over My Feet

Faithfulcrum · Mountain Acoustic · Track 17

← Mountain Acoustic · All songs & lyrics

Song information

Album, lyrics, and backstory: Faithfulcrum · Mountain Acoustic album notes.

Lyrics

Verse 1 I wish my baby was born with dirt already in his pockets sitting on his father’s knee while the porch light flickered a warning I wish my name was a nail hammered crooked through a fencepost instead of drifting underneath the cottonwood and the black roots The creek forgot my face The dogs forgot my smell Only the weeds remember where I fell Chorus Green grass over my feet Green grass over my feet Earth keeps another mouth Hidden behind its teeth And every spring it whispers things it never says to me Green grass over my feet Verse 2 The moon hangs low as a butcher’s hook above the soybean fields The dead are turning slowly like gears beneath the wheels A crow drags sunset through the ditch by one wing The whole sky sounds like a screen door singing Chorus Green grass over my feet Green grass over my feet Roots keep pulling me down Rain keeps pulling me free Somewhere my baby’s laughing where I used to be Green grass over my feet Bridge I am not lonely Just occupied These worms build cathedrals inside my eyes These rivers carry names Nobody speaks Green grass growing over my feet Final Chorus Green grass over my feet Green grass over my feet The world never learned my address but this dirt remembers me

Source: Faithfulcrum · Season Two · Mountain Acoustic, track 17.

Albums & listening

Recording details (1)

Song story & origins

Mark remembered an old mountain song and sang a little of it into the conversation. A woman wishes her baby were born and sitting on its father’s knee, while she lies buried with green grass growing over her feet. He counted it among the saddest songs he knew. A few remembered lines were enough to leave a feeling in the room. This new song took its beginning from that feeling, imagining a voice beneath the soil while roots grow, weather passes, and life carries on overhead.

Season 2, Episode 14 — Humanize Something · Explore the episode · Listen on Podbean