MY BIRMINGHAM HOME

Driving due south from my Tennessee house
To the pines and the place I was born
Sheltered and warm in the arms of my mom
And raised in the eye of a storm

Tennessee hardwoods give way to the pines
On the I-65 I roll down
Pines straight and tall like the walls in the halls
Of my old house in Birmingham town

Red bougainvillea
Sweet bloom gardenia
Birdsong and wind in the pines
Dreams come and go of my Birmingham home
And the old house that I left behind

The river-bend swirls where I first kissed a girl
A peck on her shimmering brow
I name all the neighbors who lived on our street
Not one of them's living there now

There's the old house it's been twenty years
New paint and shutters and doors
The trembling leaves of the old maple tree
Seem to wink like they've seen me before

Red bougainvillea
Sweet bloom gardenia
Birdsong and wind in the pines
Dreams come and go of my Birmingham home
And the old house that I left behind

Restless one night
I woke in a fright
Dad held me so tightly it hurt
I heard the next day
There were four in the way
All girls and they died in a church

I'm awake and torn
In the land I was born
Where the crosses burned
In a rising storm
The wind was strong
I heard the bombs
The church was on fire
And the birdsong was gone

Red bougainvillea
Sweet bloom gardenia
Birdsong and wind in the pines
Dreams come and go of my Birmingham home
And the old house that I left behind